Conclusion

Meral and Mekemson's idea of increasing the tobacco tax and allocating some of the money to public health and environmental programs had matured and developed a committed constituency, led by the ALA and ACS. After documenting public support for their idea, they made the obligatory attempt at getting the Legislature to act. Following the bill's defeat, the proponents of the tax increase were poised to start their initiative campaign and hoped, vainly, that they would receive substantial support from organized medicine. They had no idea how deeply the tobacco industry had already neutralized the CMA as they moved into the battle to qualify the tobacco tax initiative for the ballot campaign for voter support.