Last month, the General Assembly demonstrated the final act of dereliction of duty to the children of this state when it stripped the remaining $2 million planned for youth tobacco prevention. This flagrant disregard for the youth of this state has put them directly in harm's way and provided unfettered access to them by the tobacco industry.

This abandonment of children in favor of a product that costs the state well over $3 billion and only generates $28 million in revenue hardly smacks of reasonable or sound business judgment. When the elected officials stripped all the funds that would have prevented harm to these children, they not only violated their duty, but they now are responsible for the harm caused by tobacco use that will be inflicted on our children in years to come.

S.C. elected officials chose to mortgage the state's children to fill budget gaps and to funnel additional funds to the tobacco farmers, who have already received significant monies.

As the highest former tobacco company executive to address the public health and safety issues involving tobacco products, I was a key witness in the states' lawsuits against the tobacco industry. These lawsuits produced an unparalleled discovery of at least a half-century of fraud and direct targeting of the world's children with a highly addictive, lethal product.

In the end, 46 states settled with the tobacco industry in a historic Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. The total amount settled with these states would amount to $246 billion over a 25-year period.

The attorneys general and the many who put themselves in harm's way by participating in the lawsuits that culminated in the agreement believed the settlement funds would not only repay the years of health care costs borne by the states in treating sick smokers but, more importantly, would establish an inheritance for the children of this country.

This inheritance would implement tobacco control and prevention programs that would enable our children to make healthy choices and resist direct targeting by the tobacco industry. This consequence would have a double effect of saving lives and health care costs.

How much would the implementation of these programs cost? The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention estimates that it would cost South Carolina $24 million per year to implement a proven comprehensive, community-based program such as the Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program.

Twenty-four million dollars per year may sound like a lot. But when we realize how much South Carolina receives from the agreement and from the National Tobacco Growers Settlement Trust Fund, it is a paltry sum. The agreement will give South Carolina $2.3 billion over a 25-year period, paid for by the millions that lost their lives. Through 2002, South Carolina has received more than $200 million from the agreement and $357.4 million from the growers trust fund over 12 years.

Disturbingly, the children of South Carolina have received less than $7 million and, after this year, will receive no more of these funds. The tobacco farmers have received $118 million from the agreement and $17 million from the trust fund.

The 460,000 tobacco-related preventable deaths, the $100 billion in health care costs, and the $140 billion in lost productivity borne by the citizens of this country are the direct result of the tobacco industry targeting our children for profit. It begins at an average age of 13 and ends in premature death in the most productive years of their lives with cardiovascular, lung and other vital organ failures.

The industry needs 5,000 of our children each day to become the 1 million new addicts to replace those that cease to use their product. It spends more than $12 billion per year -- more than $30 million per day -- in marketing and promotion of a product that, when used as intended, kills.

South Carolina has one of the highest mortality and morbidity rates in the country, and it is projected that more than 90,000 South Carolina youth will die prematurely from a tobacco-related illness if the current attitudes toward tobacco control persist.

Sadly, the recent decision of our elected officials regarding the allocation of tobacco settlement funds reveals that they value economic and infrastructural development more than they do protecting the lives and health of our children. Is their duty to the future misguided by their need for political, unenlightened actions that compromise us all?