$14 Billion for Reducing Smoking Habits

The U.S. Justice Department asked cigarette makers to pay a total of 14 billion USD to help smokers reduce youth smoking by 42% by 2013. The 14 billion will be spent for stop-smoking campaigns, which should cost approximately 10 billion dollars, while the remaining 4 billion will be spent on tobacco-education programs.

The anti-smoking plan will span for the next 10 years, and the initial 10 billion discussed will be renewed if the companies break the agreement in the future.
This plan intends to decrease the number of smokers under the age of 21, and if the cigarette makers don't meet the established target they will be fined 3,000 USD per smoker above the reduction targets.

This filing shows new efforts made by the government to avoid paying hundreds of billions of dollars reimbursements for money spent for treating sick smokers and health insurance companies.

According to bloomberg.com, this is the sequel of a case brought in 1999 against Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA, Reynolds American Inc.'s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and other U.S. cigarette makers. The latest actions prove that there's no sign of reconcilement between the Justice Department and cigarette companies.