Lack of state, federal funding leads to West Virginia's Raze program's elimination, leaders say

Yahoo

01-05-2025

Raze, a youth-led program aimed at preventing youth smoking and vaping in West Virginia for more than 20 years, will end this summer because of state and federal funding cuts. (Raze photo)
Raze, a youth-led program aimed at preventing youth smoking and vaping in West Virginia for more than 20 years, will end this summer because of state and federal funding cuts, the organization said Thursday.
The program will run out of money June 30. Leaders have started to alert participating middle and high schools and adult advisors that there will be no more support for the program after that, said Chaste Barclay, director of health promotions for the American Lung Association, which supports the program.
'We are devastated that the administration in Washington and state leaders eliminated funding support for tobacco education programs for Raze youth and their schools,' the organization said in a statement Thursday. 'Over the years, this program has saved lives and reduced the burden of tobacco use in youth. The program made incredible progress in reducing youth tobacco use in West Virginia, and we can't allow funding decisions to reverse this progress.'
West Virginia has some of the highest rates in the country for adult and youth cigarette and e-cigarette use. In 2022, 21% of West Virginia adults smoked, according to the American Lung Association. That same year, 27.5% of teenagers in the state used electronic cigarettes, the organization said.
West Virginia also has among the highest rates for tobacco-caused cancer deaths in the country.
Raze received $315,000 for the 2025 fiscal year, Barclay said. The majority of the funding was from the federal government. That money came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's Office of Smoking and Health, which was eliminated as of April 1.
As for state funding, a spokeswoman for the House of Delegates said the state budget has not included a regular allocation for the Tobacco Education Program since 2017, and a governor has not requested funding for the program since then. The state may have provided the program with supplemental funds since then, she said.
'[The American Lung Association] has been around for 120-plus years, and have worked through all the different administrations and the ups and downs,' Barclay said. 'So it's just unfortunate the timing. But we'll continue to look for funding. Hopefully we can get it back in some way and be able to support it.'
This year, 1,558 West Virginia teens from 53 different groups participated in the Raze program, the organization said in the statement. Participants completed more than 1,600 tobacco education activities aimed at bringing awareness to the dangers of tobacco use using peer-to-peer education, the organization said.
While the program started with the goal of preventing youth cigarette use, the main messaging from the program for years now has been preventing use of e-cigarettes and vapes, Barclay said.
Without the program, Barclay said the state's youth smoking and vaping rates will increase. The tobacco-related products keep changing, she said, and younger and younger kids are using them.
'We've heard of fourth and fifth graders using [them],' she said. 'So I think without that activism out there, and peer-to-peer education, which has been so successful in the past, I think we're just going to see an increase in numbers. And so that'll lead to future generations being addicted, and additional health issues down the line, and billions of dollars in health care.'
The organization called on Gov. Patrick Morrisey to include a tobacco prevention bill that died during the regular session on the call for a potential special legislative session this year.
House Bill 3521 would have allocated $1.19 million from a state settlement with the vaping manufacturer Juul to tobacco education efforts in the state. The state settled with the company in 2023 for $7.9 million in a lawsuit that alleged the company targeted minors with their advertising.
The bill passed in the 93 to 6 in the House of Delegates but was pending in the Senate finance committee when the session ended.
'We urge Gov. Morrisey to include this legislation in a special session to ensure that the funding is used for its original intent and continues the good work we have done to reduce youth tobacco use in West Virginia,' the organization said.
The governor's office did not immediately return an email seeking comment Thursday.
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