Winning the smoking wars: Tobacco control at the polls

Physician-backed smoking prevention initiatives won big in November's elections, but much work remains.

Editorial. Dec. 9, 2002.

Years of physician efforts to snuff out smoking among patients and to disperse Big Tobacco's smoke screen of legitimacy paid off in November's elections. Voters in three states showed that they are finally getting the message by approving AMA-supported tobacco-control initiatives.

Perhaps the most impressive victory came in Florida, where 71% of voters approved a Florida Medical Assn.-backed constitutional amendment banning smoking in most indoor workplaces, including restaurants.

It marks the first time that Americans approved a smoke-free workplace measure in a statewide referendum. The overwhelming margin shows just how open the public is to tobacco-control efforts.

Voters in another two states signaled their support by passing important ballot initiatives.

In Arizona, 66% of voters approved a measure to raise the state's cigarette tax by 60 cents. In Montana, two-thirds of voters cast their ballots in favor of a referendum earmarking 32% of the state's tobacco-settlement funds for tobacco prevention. Those wins were preceded by a September vote in Oregon to pass a 60-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase.

Even in the two states -- Michigan and Missouri -- where ballot questions were rejected, the measures lost not because of opposition to tobacco-control efforts but to the way the proposals were structured. In Michigan, a constitutional amendment to reallocate tobacco-settlement money to smoking prevention was sidelined because of concerns about whether the issue belonged in the state's constitution and over accountability for how the funds would be spent. In Missouri, voters worried that not enough of the funds raised by the proposed 55-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase would be directed toward tobacco control. [...]