Indiana Highlights

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States and in Indiana. To address this enormous toll, the American Lung Association calls for the following actions to be taken by Indiana’s elected officials:

During the 2023 legislative session, the American Lung Association collaborated with Tobacco Free Indiana to host our annual Advocacy Day. Over 50 coalition members held 90 legislative visits where they advocated for increasing Indiana’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation funding and raising our cigarette tax by $2.00 per pack. Unfortunately, a cigarette tax increase did not ultimately end up passing.

There was more positive news on funding for tobacco prevention and cessation. In a decision strongly supported by the Lung Association, the Indiana Attorney General's office decided to award the full Juul settlement award of $15.7 million to the state’s tobacco prevention and cessation program. The funds are to be used in support of prevention, education, harm reduction and mitigation efforts related to youth using electronic nicotine delivery systems.

On the local level, tobacco control partners across the state of Indiana have had some small policy wins. In Marshall County, the Plymouth Public Parks department unanimously voted to make the park in Plymouth smokefree, including the well-attended Blueberry Festival event. Following this success, the park in the City of Culver in Marshall County also passed a policy declaring their parks to be smoke and vape free. In Vigo County, where Indiana’s first smokefree casino will open in 2024, the Terre Haute city council unanimously passed an ordinance that added e-cigarettes to the city’s strong smoke-free air ordinance. Vigo County then passed its own ordinance adding e-cigarettes to its law soon after.

The 2022 Indiana Youth Tobacco Survey (IYTS), administered to 5,400 middle and high school students in the fall 2022, showed that 20% of high schoolers and 7% of middle school students have ever used e-cigarettes. With flavors being the 3rd most common reason for using e-cigarettes, 240 VOICE youth leaders and adult allies from across the state participated in the 2023 Youth Day at the Indiana Statehouse. Held in January 2023, it was a day of leadership training and the opportunity to meet with state decision makers.

The Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Commission has a partnership with the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) where they continued to share the Don’t Puff This Stuff campaign to help end vaping among Hoosier teens. The IHSAA’s social media channels generated a total of 20 million impressions.

Although 2024 is not a budget year; the Lung Association will continue working on increasing Indiana’s cigarette tax and funding for tobacco prevention and cessation by implementing a robust public education campaign. We will educate decisionmakers on the public health value these two public health strategies will provide. Additionally, giving control back to local municipalities to determine whether restricting flavored tobacco products is an approach that they would like to take is another way we can reach our goals of reducing tobacco use in Indiana.