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"Smoker rates have stabilized ...more tobacco ballot news |
Anti-tobacco group submits petition
7/29/2008:
Over the last few months a team of 25, including team captain and Richland County Tobacco Compliance Officer Jason Bergstrand, and other county residents have been working hard to meet a goal. They've been petitioning for signatures from people to support anti-tobacco programs — hoping to reach 1,000 total. The team has met and exceeded their goal bringing in 1,371 signatures, which have been contributed to the statewide effort to get the measure on the ballot.
Former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp, chairwoman of the campaign, has said the measure has signatures from more than 16,000 North Dakotans. It was necessary to collect 13,000 names to get on the ballot so exceeding that amount allows the petition to be turned in to the state.
The proposed ballot measure sets aside some of the money from a North Dakota lawsuit settlement against tobacco companies to pay for programs that discourage tobacco use.
The measure seeks approximately $9 million annually in state money for anti-tobacco programs and right now North Dakota is spending just over $2 million a year.
"It wasn't a hard sale at all," Bergstrand said. "We're finding that there is very little opposition to the measure because it just makes perfect sense to do it."
The Richland County Tobacco Free Coalition took the the lead in gathering signatures but there were several volunteers from Wahpeton, Hankinson, Wyndmere, Lisbon, Milnor, Valley City and Fargo.
Michelle Gjerdevig, Wahpeton, was one of those volunteers. Gjerdevid pledged to get 150 signatures and ended up handing in more than 200.
"I found it easy to ask people for," Gjerdevig said. "People were more then willing to sign it."
Many signatures Gjerdevig collected were followed by comments from the signee. Stories told often included ones of family and friends and their struggle with smoking and its consequences. Gjerdevig only encountered two individual households that denied to sign the petition.
Areas already funded by the settlement payments include water projects and education. Bergstrand said those allocations would remain the same if the the ballot measure were to pass.
"It's really a win, win for anyone," he said. "Smoker rates have stabilized in the last four years and we need to step up our efforts to see it trend downward. This is one of those ways to do that." [1]
See North Dakota Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program Petition (2008)
