Source: www.desmoinesregister.com
Author: Tony Leys

Iowans no longer would face gruesome photos of mouth cancer or TV portrayals of smarmy cigarette salesmen if House Republicans get their way.

GOP leaders want to end to the “Just Eliminate Lies” program, which sponsors graphic anti-tobacco ads and organizes youth conferences to battle smoking.

Linda Upmeyer, a Garner Republican set to become majority leader, said Just Eliminate Lies often spends money on superfluous activities, such as merchandise giveaways. “If we’re going to do smoking cessation, I don’t think Iowans want to buy backpacks and T-shirts,” she said.

House Republicans proposed junking the program this week as part of a large package of budget cuts. They also proposed ending a program called Quitline Iowa, which provides telephone counseling to people who want to quit smoking.

Upmeyer said she’d heard that callers often did not get prompt responses from the contractor that runs Quitline. “These are ineffective programs,” she said, and they should not be a priority in a tight budget year.

Organizers denied the allegation. Cathy Callaway, who is chairwoman of the Iowa Tobacco Prevention and Control Commission, said she hadn’t heard of major problems with Quitline Iowa. She also noted that the percentage of Iowa high-schoolers who smoke regularly dropped to 20 percent in 2008 from 31 percent in 2000, when Just Eliminate Lies started. She said she believes the program was targeted because of its controversial ads.

A 2008 analysis of the program showed that teen smoking had declined, but it also noted that fewer teens had heard of Just Eliminate Lies.

Bryant Hickie, a Marshalltown High School senior who is the program’s president, said the group countered those findings by adding more local chapters, which encourage young people to join the campaign. He said supporters already are organizing to save the program.

Nonpartisan legislative staffers estimated cutting all smoking-cessation efforts could save the state up to $2.4 million in the remainder of this fiscal year and up to $6.7 million in the next fiscal year.