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"Communities aren't getting their needs met and kids might be trying to stop smoking and not be able to find a program to help them quit," said Ann Houston, field director for public education and communication for the North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch. "It's a tragic situation that so many really good programs are suffering right now."

I for one am tickled pink about ths situation.

Everyone, but particularly the antis, forget the purpose of the MSA to begin with. The purpose of it was to REIMBURSE the states for the allegeded extra helath care costs that had been expended on smokers. The rationale being had these funds would have been spent elsewhere had they not been spent on smoking related health care. That is why the states all sued to begin with.

The antis shouldn't be getting a penny of this money There is a large portion of it funding the American Legacy Foundation, the sole purpose of which is anti-smoker propaganda.

I love seeing weasels whine!!!!!

There's a big piece of this picture that you guys are missing. Everyone forgets that there were only a handful of states who started the lawsuits in the beginning and they were actually doing it with the intention of putting the money back into health related areas. The snow ball started rolling downhill and the other states piled on -- and I seriously doubt many, if any, of them gave a rat's @ss about health -- it was feeding time at the trough.

And why do you think NC, the so-called "Tobacco Road" got involved? At first the response was, "no way!" But then somebody got the bright idea that, "Hey, we can jump on the band wagon, usurp our own big pot of cash, roll it back to the farmers and tobacco industry, and buy a whole boat load of votes!!!!!!!!! Shazaaaaaam! It's a tobacco scam!!!!

And guess what, NC's own Attorney General did just that -- he even became the lead attorney for the negotiations for ALL the states participating in the law suit. While telling the folks in the health arena he was doing it for them he was winking at the growers, tobacco communities and industry. When it was all said and done the tobacco-related groups got 3/4s of ALL the settlement money, and in reality are getting about 95 percent of it. Wow!!!! Talk about a powerful vote buying machine! We're talking billions of dollars.

And guess who that good ol' AG was? That's right -- Mike Weasley. And here's a little extra food for thought. Does anyone out there think for one second that NC would have participated in the law suit/settlement if the politicos didn't have a green light from big tobacco industry? No way. These guys ran the figures and realized that they would come out a lot better in the long run to go ahead and settle rather than face an endless parade of law suits.

So who got screwed? Not the tobacco farmer -- remember, they're getting all kinds of compensations (but in doing so are phasing themSELVES out of growing tobacco). The only people who truly got the shaft were the stupid health people who really believe that an attorney was doing something FOR THEM. And, of course, everyone honest Joe Blow who hates these back room deals, betrayals and dishonest government.