New York state residents can have pride in the New York tobacco-control program. The New York program is a highly successful, world-class tobacco-control program that works. Since its inception in 2000, adult smoking is down 22 percent and youth smoking has dropped 40 percent. This means a healthier population and lower health-care costs.

Since the beginning of the current fiscal crisis, the New York tobacco-control program has been reduced 20 percent. This reduction is far greater than cuts experienced by most state programs and is greatly in excess of across-the-board budget cuts applied since the beginning of the fiscal crisis. These cuts have eroded the progress made by past wise investments in tobacco control and opened the door even farther for the predatory big tobacco companies to market their deadly products to our kids.

Budget reductions have resulted in anti-smoking messages in the media being reduced by one-third, followed by a 26 percent decline in awareness of these messages among smokers. Funding to community-based programs have been cut by more than 20 percent, resulting in an overall reduction of services to people all across the state. And, an enhanced Smokers' Quitline service for Medicaid and uninsured callers was eliminated.

It has been irrefutably proven in federal court that big tobacco spends billions of dollars every year on marketing activities to encourage young people to try cigarette products in order to provide the replacement smokers their business needs to survive. Why do they need replacements? Because too many of their customers die early as a result of cigarette-related diseases.

We can't let the dirty work of big tobacco go unchallenged. We must continue to support a comprehensive tobacco-control program in New York state - or we will only have ourselves to blame when hundreds of thousands of youths across our state become regular smokers.

JUSTIN HLADIK

Program coordinator,

Reality Check of Hamilton, Fulton

& Montgomery Counties