According to Time Magazine, the state of North Carolina used a portion of its tobacco settlement money to build infrastructure for a tobacco manufacturing plant.
I’m all for providing jobs. And a lot of states are using their tobacco money for things that aren’t smoking- or even health-related. (My state, Michigan, started a merit scholarship program for graduating high school seniors.)
Still, something about taking money that your state received because so many people were wrongly killed or harmed by cigarette smoking, and using it to make cigarettes, strikes me as a bit … self-defeating?
Maybe NC can use part of their money for a new children’s campaign, aimed at bolstering the lagging chewing tobacco market. “Percy the Plug-Chaw.” Interactive spit-a-longs, make your own spittoon, etc.
Where others may see incongruous lunacy, I see possibilities.
This is a smart move on behalf of the North Carolina legislature (and when’s the last time you heard someone say that?) If they don’t help the ciggie manufactures out now, what’s the state going to do ten years down the line when all the settlement money has run out? This way, they insure that they’ll still have someone to sue in the future. They’re making sure tobacco settlements are a renewable resource. How enviromental!