New Mexico Highlights

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

The American Lung Association provides leadership in convening partners and guiding public policy efforts to continue the state’s success in reducing the impact of tobacco among New Mexicans. Together with our partners, the Lung Association works to ensure tobacco control and prevention remains a priority for state legislators and local decision makers.

In 2023, the Lung Association’s focus was to continue to educate legislators, legislative staff, and the general public about smoking and the importance of providing tobacco cessation programs for adults and youth, and the dangers of secondhand smoke. During the legislative session, the Lung Association along with our partners worked to increase the excise tax on tobacco products, close the loophole on indoor smoking in racinos, prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products, restore the tobacco settlement fund, and repeal preemption of local communities' ability to pass stronger tobacco sales policies. Disappointingly, while these bills saw movement and passed their first committee assignments, none of them made it to the Governor’s desk for consideration.

Funding for the state tobacco control program from tobacco Master Settlement Agreement dollars have seen significant cuts in previous years and falls well short of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended levels. It is important for New Mexico legislators and the Governor to consider protecting the settlement dollars by removing the budget reserve designation from the Tobacco Settlement Permanent Fund, where 50% of annual of Master Settlement Agreement payments are designated.

Moving forward in 2024, the American Lung Association will once again make it a priority to educate our legislature and communities about the dangers of tobacco use, the importance of a well-funded tobacco prevention and cessation program and will work to protect state tobacco prevention and control program funding.