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Letter: Cuts to health fund would hurt youth

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Staff

As a young person in North Carolina who is passionate about eradicating the use of tobacco, I am very concerned about the budget cuts that would abolish the TRU Movement. The TRU Movement is a statewide program that focuses on preventing youth from using tobacco products and is funded by the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF). If the current budget proposal passes the Senate, the HWTF would be dissolved and lose all funding forever.

I joined the Tobacco. Reality. Unfiltered. (TRU) Club at my high school this year and I have been able to make a huge impact in the lives of my peers. I have learned several negative effects about the use of tobacco that you would never hear about on a daily basis. This has aided me in my quest to stop my peers from using tobacco products.

Recently, our school’s TRU Club invited Reena, the cancer survivor who appears in the TRU commercials speaking with an electronic voice box, to give a presentation that greatly impacted several students. Many of them confirmed their efforts to quit smoking and others, who had contemplated smoking, informed me that they were not going to think about it again because they were very inspired by Reena to remain tobacco-free.

I know our legislators have tough budget decisions to make, but tobacco prevention is an important investment. Thanks to the HWTF and the TRU Movement, there are 53,000 fewer smokers, with the result that North Carolina currently has the lowest youth smoking rate in its history. We urge you to contact your senators and tell them to save the Health and Wellness Trust Fund! We are the solution, not the problem.

Vanessa Amoako
Media/editorial coordinator, Tobacco. Reality. Unfiltered. (TRU) Club
Carrboro High School

1 thought on “Letter: Cuts to health fund would hurt youth”

  1. James Smith says:
    May 27, 2011 at 10:46 pm

    If the movement is so important to you, why don’t you consider fundraising yourself? Why do you need taxpayer monies to fund what you describe as so necessary for our society? If it’s this important to you, don’t you think you’ll be able to find more than enough willing donors?

    I don’t understand your need for our money to spread a message that *you* deem important. While I’m not a smoker myself, I don’t care that other people do smoke. I even benefit from others smoking because smokers tend to die sooner and pay more in taxes than non-smokers, reducing their reliance on me for medicare and social security spending. You’re effectively raising my taxes by your crusade. Have some foresight!

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