New Jersey’s strategies for curtailing tobacco use recently drew approval from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN).
Gov. Chris Christie recently signed the bill A3338 into law, which will funnel 1 percent of all tobacco-derived taxes to the state's tobacco-control initiative, a venture that supports smokers trying to quit and aims to prevent people from starting smoking, according to a press release. Christie signed the bill after sending to back to the legislature to extend the implementation date. It will go into effect July 1.
"This new law will work to break the cycle of tobacco addiction in New Jersey and help save lives,” Brian Shott, New Jersey government relations director for ACS CAN, said in the release. “Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death in the United States. It is projected that this year over 51,000 New Jerseyans will be diagnosed with cancer and nearly 16,000 in our state will die due to this disease. We commend the legislature, particularly Senator Brian Stack and Assemblyman Tim Eustace, for their leadership on this issue.”
Shott said in the release that ACS CAN looks forward to working with Gov.-elect Phil Murphy in 2018 and that Murphy “went on record with ACS CAN as supporting the need for this important funding during his campaign.”
