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Each year, a lot of states get hundreds of millions from the big tobacco settlement. That’s why they spend less money on tobacco prevention. One of these states is Kansas.

"States like Kansas are not investing in complete tobacco prevention and smoking cessation programs. We know that when states do invest in these programs lives are saved. Kids don’t start smoking and adults quit," said Paul G. Billings, vice president of National Policy and Advocacy of the American Lung Association.

For example this year, Kansas will collect $170 million from the tobacco industry and tobacco taxes, but will spend $2.3 million or just 1.3 percent of it on tobacco prevention.

Meanwhile, tobacco companies spend $104 million a year to sell their products in Kansas, 46 times what the state expends on tobacco prevention. In Kansas, 20 percent of Kansas high school students smoke, and 2,900 more children become regular smokers every year, according to a recent report.

Each year, tobacco requires 3,800 lives and costs the state $927 million in health care charges. "For states not to invest, it’s sort of penny wise, pound foolish because it is much cheaper to prevent tobacco-caused disease than it is for the state to treat," Billings explained.

Douglas County is another region where about 18 percent of students in sixth through 12th grades smoke, according to the most recent data available. The Douglas County Community Health Improvement Project, generally known as CHIP, contends to reduce the smoking rate by affording educational programs. In the past year, state funding for CHIP's Tobacco Use Prevention Program dropped 17 percent to $114,700.

But some states like New York State made some of the largest cuts to antismoking programs, reducing them by $25.2 million, or 31 percent and it did so despite having a successful program that has reduced smoking.

Other states that made large cuts last year were Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington.