'Follow the Money!'

Ample funding for tobacco control and youth-smoking prevention is already being provided by the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). The MSA provides industry funding specifically earmarked for youth anti-smoking education programs and a national health research foundation. But is the MSA money being used wisely?

In fiscal year 2007, only three states are investing the minimum funding recommended by federal health officials for tobacco control programs. Thirty-three states spend less than half of what's recommended, or nothing at all.

Rather than the youth-smoking prevention and future Medicaid reimbursement for which it was intended, MSA money is being spent on everything from golf carts to bridges, roads and parks to state deficit reduction, and, of course, on more bureaucracy. So, Where Has the MSA Money Gone?