South Dakota Highlights

Commercial tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States and in South Dakota. To address this enormous toll, the American Lung Association calls for the following actions to be taken by South Dakota’s elected officials:

During the 2023 legislative session, funding for the state's tobacco control program was set at $4.5 million from tobacco tax revenues, the same level as the past few years. Protecting this funding is important to be able to serve the priority populations in the state strategic plan and to fund quit smoking services.

Medicaid coverage of quit smoking treatments in South Dakota is also far from comprehensive, and one of the main reasons is a state law that prevents the state Medicaid program from buying nicotine. Unfortunately, without an exception this has the unintended consequence of preventing the state from buying FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). The Lung Association encourages legislators to address this issue in 2024 by creating an exception for FDA-approved tobacco cessation medications, so Medicaid enrollees who smoke at higher rates can gain access to a fuller range of quit smoking treatment options.

During the past year, the South Dakota Tobacco Control Program has been working on many different projects. The program continues to try and find new ways to connect with South Dakota tobacco users and get them to the South Dakota Quitline. At the end of 2023, the Quitline rolled out a new hybrid texting service due to many clients preferring to text rather than talk in-person. The Quitline has begun to offer up to eight weeks of personalized text messaging communication (two weeks of phone calls) and up to eight weeks of NRT patches, gum or lozenges.

The South Dakota Tobacco Control Program launched five new media campaigns including: Watch Your Mouth SD (aimed towards dental providers), More Good Years (sending people to the Quitline), Make Smoking History, Honor Every Breath (targeted towards Native American people), and Vaping Sucks (youth prevention). These media campaigns are doing very well and have increased traffic to a new consolidated website.

The program also developed a new multi-unit housing toolkit to help landlords and property owners establish tobacco free policies and understand why they are important. In summer 2024, the program will launch a new K-12 tobacco control toolkit that will help schools and youth organizations with tobacco prevention activities.

The coalition in South Dakota has tremendous reach across the state and is working together to support tobacco control best practices and to implement the strategic plan to reduce the harm from commercial tobacco in South Dakota in 2024. With your help, the Lung Association will ensure that our leaders pay attention to lung health, as we advocate for action to pass laws and put in place programs that will reduce commercial tobacco use and save lives.