Discussion at a Nov. 4 council meeting revealed that the TSET encouraged the Cherokee County Communities of Excellence Tobacco Control program to wrap e-cigarettes in with tobacco.
Val Dobbins, chairman of the county program, said TSET [Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust] sent down these ordinances and they ask us to propose (them) in the cities, according to a report in the Tahlequah Daily Press.
First thing off the bat, in order for us to be certified healthy at the excellent level for a city, the first thing they ask us for is to add e-cigarettes, or electronic smoking devices, to our ordinances that have to do with tobacco, Dobbins said.
At stake is at least $42,000 in prospective grant funding from TSET.
However, that sum may understate the cash incentives for a ban.
John Yeutter, a certified public accountant and an associate professor of accounting at Northeastern State University, told officials the county programs own online reports identified TSET grants totaling $146,9987 in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012.
Recent news of the tactics of bureaucrats associated with the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund should concern all Oklahomans, said Jonathan Small, vice president for policy at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, the states largest free-market and limited-government think tank.
Its alarming, their use of taxpayer dollars to influence citizens and local communities into banning safe and effective alternatives to traditional smoking products, Small said. Their recent actions demonizing and profiling e-cigarettes are yet more evidence of the need for strict oversight and a complete overhaul of TSET and its activities.
