59-22-201 - Findings and purpose.
59-22-201. Findings and purpose.
(1) Cigarette smoking presents serious public health concerns to the State and to thecitizens of the State. The Surgeon General has determined that smoking causes lung cancer, heartdisease and other serious diseases, and that there are hundreds of thousands of tobacco-relateddeaths in the United States each year. These diseases most often do not appear until many yearsafter the person in question begins smoking.
(2) Cigarette smoking also presents serious financial concerns for the State. Undercertain health-care programs, the State may have a legal obligation to provide medical assistanceto eligible persons for health conditions associated with cigarette smoking, and those persons mayhave a legal entitlement to receive such medical assistance.
(3) Under these programs, the State pays millions of dollars each year to provide medicalassistance for these persons for health conditions associated with cigarette smoking.
(4) It is the policy of the State that financial burdens imposed on the State by cigarettesmoking be borne by tobacco product manufacturers rather than by the State to the extent thatsuch manufacturers either determine to enter into a settlement with the State or are found culpableby the courts.
(5) On November 23, 1998, leading United States tobacco product manufacturers enteredinto a settlement agreement, entitled the "Master Settlement Agreement," with the State. TheMaster Settlement Agreement obligates these manufacturers, in return for a release of past,present, and certain future claims against them as described therein, to pay substantial sums to theState (tied in part to their volume of sales); to fund a national foundation devoted to the interestsof public health; and to make substantial changes in their advertising and marketing practices andcorporate culture, with the intention of reducing underage smoking.
(6) It would be contrary to the policy of the State if tobacco product manufacturers whodetermine not to enter into such a settlement could use a resulting cost advantage to derive large,short-term profits in the years before liability may arise without ensuring that the State will havean eventual source of recovery from them if they are proven to have acted culpably. It is thus inthe interest of the State to require that such manufacturers establish a reserve fund to guarantee asource of compensation and to prevent such manufacturers from deriving large, short-term profitsand then becoming judgment-proof before liability may arise.
Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 229, 2000 General Session