Where's the help from tobacco settlement?

I thought that the purpose of the megazillion dollar "Tobacco Settlement" was to "help individual states recover the cost of caring for smokers who had succumbed to cancer." This conjured up images of seriously ill people finally being given better care in new hospitals with more doctors and nurses, better equipment, etc.

This may be the case in other areas of the country but has Alaska seen any tobacco dollars going toward health care?

The only visible spending that I have noticed is for paid advertising on radio, TV and in the print media telling us not to smoke. Is this really how the money was originally intended to be spent? If so, it would explain why there was generally favorable reporting when "Big Tobacco" settled with all the states just before the Turn of the Century.

Can we assume that the revenue from the proposed increase in the already-high cigarette tax will similarly go to advertising instead of health care?

P.S. Remember the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that promised us lower cable bills? Beware of future legislation with the word "Reform" in its title.

Bill Gronvold, Kenai