Every state tobacco law, and whether Medicaid pays to help you quit

The State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System is an
interactive application holding current and historical state-level data on
tobacco use prevention and control.

It is built around two datasets, and the pairing is the point.

Legislation

Current and historical data on tobacco-related laws across **50 states,
the District of Columbia**, and the territories — **American Samoa, Guam, the
Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.**

Tobacco control in the United States is substantially a state and local
matter: clean indoor air laws, taxes, age limits, licensing. A national
picture of "tobacco policy" does not exist; fifty-seven of them do.

Cessation coverage

Data on traditional Medicaid coverage of tobacco cessation treatments
across 50 states and DC.

This is the other half. A state can pass every restriction on smoking and
still leave its lowest-income smokers — who are disproportionately the ones
who smoke — without covered access to the medicines and counselling that
actually help them stop.

Smoking prevalence is highest among people on Medicaid. Whether their state's
programme pays for a quit attempt is therefore one of the more consequential
policy variables there is, and it varies.

What it is for

Both datasets are described as serving as **a national clearinghouse
information source and resource for the public** — usable to **assess tobacco
prevention and control activities** in a state or territory, with a published
glossary and methodology so the comparisons mean something.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.