Advocates: Mass. tobacco money should go to minorities

By Associated Press, 04/12/99

BOSTON - As the state prepares to collect its share of a multibillion-dollar settlement with the tobacco industry, some local leaders are urging: Don't forget about the black community.

Black Americans have been targeted, some say, by cigarette makers -- as evidenced by countless tobacco-touting billboards in minority neighborhoods and smoking ads in black-oriented magazines. And blacks suffer from a disproportionate number of smoking-related illnesses.

Therefore, say advocates, they should get their own piece of the settlement pie.

"There have been plans to put the money to other uses, and we need to make sure that it is appropriated correctly,'' said state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, D-Boston. "This is a major issue. This is going to be a fight.''

Local politicians, community activists and health officials -- including U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher -- gathered Monday at Roxbury Community College to discuss tobacco, the settlement and its potential effect on blacks.

Over the next 25 years, Massachusetts expects to collect about $8 billion of the $205 billion tobacco companies are paying out to settle lawsuits seeking to recover the costs of treating smoking-related illness.

While suggestions in Massachusetts have ranged from giving the money to taxpayers to paying for prescription drugs for the elderly, advocates Monday said the state should use at least some of the settlement money for blacks.

One proposal includes using the money to educate kids in minority neighborhoods about the dangers of smoking.

"Community-based programs have been shortchanged,'' said the Rev. Hessie Harris, pastoral director of Churches Organized to Save Tomorrow. "Some of the money needs to be generated into the minority communities so we can get the message out that smoking is unhealthy.''

More than 45,000 black Americans die each year from smoking-related illnesses, giving them a higher death rate due to lung cancer than any other race. Yet the group is a prime target for cigarette advertisers, Satcher said.

According to a review by the American Cancer Society, the leading advertisers in several black-oriented magazines are cigarette makers. Tobacco companies also have been accused of systematically targeting minorities with ads for menthol cigarettes.

Seven of 10 black smokers now choose menthol cigarettes, the society said.

"There is no question that in the past tobacco companies have targeted minority communities. Our research has shown that,'' Satcher said, adding that he also advocates using some of the settlement money for education.

"We have to remember why the settlement was given. The settlement is about health,'' he said. "We ought to invest more funds in stopping the younger folks from starting smoking by educating them and stopping those older ones who already do.''

Meanwhile, lawmakers led by House Speaker Thomas Finneran on Monday proposed putting the state's tobacco settlement money into a trust fund.

The state is supposed to get $350 million by June 2000, but lawsuits over the tobacco settlement may delay payments to states.

The proposal would extend the life of the money, while preventing the state from spending money it doesn't yet have, the lawmakers said. Up to 15 percent of the principal would be used for health care and antitobacco efforts in the early years, beginning in 2001.

By the eighth year, lawmakers estimated, the state would only be spending interest earned from the principal.