Alan Wilson announces SC received more than $70 Million in tobacco settlement funds
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Friday that the state secured $70,453,028.48 in its share of the annual tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (“MSA”) Payment.
In 1998, the Attorney General’s Office ed 45 other States, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories in settling claims with the then four major U.S. cigarette manufacturers.
The MSA is said to be the largest financial recovery in legal history.
Since the MSA was signed in November 1998, about 50 other tobacco companies have signed onto the MSA and are also bound by its . The settlement imposes major restrictions on the industry’s advertising and marketing, and it provides states with annual payments in perpetuity to help reimburse the states for healthcare costs and harm caused by tobacco use.
The MSA’s purpose is to reduce smoking in the U.S., especially in youth, which is achieved through various avenues including:
- Raising the cost of cigarettes by imposing payment obligations on the tobacco companies party to the MSA.
- Restricting tobacco advertising, marketing, and promotions, including: Prohibiting tobacco companies from taking any action to target youth in the advertising, promotion, or marketing of tobacco products. Banning the use of cartoons in advertising, promotions, packaging, or labeling of tobacco products. Prohibiting tobacco companies from distributing merchandise bearing the brand name of tobacco products. Banning payments to promote tobacco products in media, such as movies, television shows, theater, music, and video games. Prohibiting tobacco brand name sponsorship of events with a significant youth audience or team sports.
- Eliminating tobacco company practices that obscure tobacco’s health risks.
- Providing money for the Settling States that states may choose to use to fund smoking prevention programs.
- Establishing and funding the Truth Initiative, an organization “dedicated to achieving a culture where all youth and young adults reject tobacco.”
South Carolina’s payment primarily goes to the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services for the Medicaid program.
The Attorney General is tasked with enforcing the tobacco statutes enacted under the MSA, and works with the attorneys general across the country to enforce the provisions of the MSA.
Since 1998, South Carolina has received $1,984,561,831.17 in its share of tobacco MSA payments.
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