CAB member rejects “sleeping with the enemy”

CAB member rejects “sleeping with the enemy”

TIME Magazine recently published a story about the tobacco industry’s funding of controversial tobacco-prevention programs in schools, which public health experts say don’t work and promote the idea that tobacco giants really care about kids. In January, Malcolm Ahlo, our ASPiRE CAB member in Las Vegas, was offered the chance to apply for a grant funded by Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes. The grant would offer schools that partner with Ahlo’s Southern Nevada Health District free educational materials and pay teachers to train to lead the Botvin LifeSkills Training program, an elementary through high school substance use and violence prevention program. Ahlo declined. “If the tobacco industry were truly interested in addressing youth tobacco issues, it would support initiatives like increasing the price of cigarettes and eliminating flavored products,” he told the magazine, telling TIME that taking Big Tobacco’s funding would be “sleeping with the enemy.” Read the story in TIME Magazine.