The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

The California Tobacco Control Program has sought to change the broad social norms around using tobacco—to push tobacco use out of the charmed circle of normal, desirable practice to being an abnormal practice; in short, to denormalize smoking and other tobacco use. And it has achieved this via a policy development appraoch. Whereas individual behavior change approaches yield limited impact at the personal level, policy change creates environments where it is easier to quit smoking, or not start at all. Policy change sustains social norm change.

Evaluation results indicate that this approach is working in California: consumption has declined by approximately 60% since the inception of the Program in 1989, and is half the rate as compared to the rest of the United States. Adult smoking prevalence has dropped to 14% in 2005, a 38% reduction since 1988.

Given declining resources, the Program has determined that each policy development effort must result in victory. Winning is everything. Therefore, the Program provides statewide leadership by funding an intricate technical assistance infrastructure that trains local programs in community organizing, legal technical assistance, and other areas critical for policy development success.

California has made an unflinching commitment to local tobacco control policy development within these priority areas. The Program has found that local communities are the incubator of tobacco control innovation. Many, if not most, successful tobacco control policies were tried, tested, and eventually, succeeded at the local level .