A pilot stop-smoking program in Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas cut adult smoking from 22 percent to 16 percent over four years, but state lawmakers have failed to build on that success by expanding the effort to other parts of the state, the San Antonio Express-News reported May 13.

Texas used $9 million from its share of the nationwide tobacco settlement to launch a comprehensive stop-smoking campaign in Beaumont-Port Arthur six years ago, including TV ads, school-based education, free counseling and nicotine patches, and police crackdowns on underage tobacco purchases. In addition to cutting adult smoking by 25 percent, the campaign was credited with slashing youth smoking by 36 percent.

But state lawmakers recently voted against a proposal that could have expanded the programs statewide by devoting 5 cents of a planned $1 increase in Texas' cigarette tax to smoking prevention. "Here the tobacco companies spend a billion dollars a year to get our kids to pick up the habit and we aren't willing to spend $21 million," said state Sen. Jane Nelson. "It's so sad. What's that movie? There's a new movie out, 'Thank You for Smoking.' That's the message we're sending."

Even the tax plan would have fallen far short of the $103 million the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that Texas should spend on smoking prevention each year. "Anything would be an improvement over the $7 million that they're spending now," said Danny McGoldrick, vice president for research with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "This is a state that takes in about a billion dollars in revenue between their tobacco tax and their tobacco-settlement payments."