The Partnership For A Tobacco-Free Maine (PTM) is the Maine State Tobacco Prevention and Control Program. The PTM was originally developed as a result of the tobacco excise tax legislation passed in 1997. In November 1998, Maine, along with 45 other states across the country, sued the tobacco industry for the recovery of the states Medicaid health care costs attributed to tobacco use. As a result of the Master Settlement Agreement the industry committed to paying the states approximately $206 billion for the first 25 years of the agreement. Payments must be made as long as the settling companies sell cigarettes in the United States. Of that total, it is estimated that Maine will receive approximately $50 million per year.

Through the Fund for a Healthy Maine, the 119th Maine State Legislature dedicated all of the state tobacco settlement funds to health programs. A significant portion of those funds has been allocated specifically to the PTM to develop and implement statewide tobacco prevention, control, and treatment programs.

The PTM, a comprehensive program, also receives funding from a cooperative agreement with the CDC and is designed to reflect the CDC's Best Practice Guidelines for Statewide Tobacco Prevention and Control Programs. The mission of the PTM is to reduce death and disability due to tobacco use among Maine citizens by creating an environment that is supportive of a tobacco-free life.

The statewide program, which focuses its efforts primarily on population-based strategies and policy and environmental change, has four primary goals:

• Prevent youth and young adults from starting to use tobacco;
• Motivate and assist tobacco users to quit;
• To eliminate involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke; and
• Identify and eliminate disparities related to tobacco use among population groups.

The PTM supports a variety of programs and activities that help to achieve the above goals. These include:

• Statewide media: counter-marketing and public awareness campaigns.
• A statewide coordinated system of tobacco treatment services including the toll-free Maine Tobacco HelpLine, tobacco treatment medication program, and training in tobacco treatment for health care providers and other health care professionals.
• Funding to 31 local Healthy Maine Partnerships across the state working to reduce tobacco use and tobacco-related chronic diseases.
• Enforcement activities related to preventing youth access to tobacco as well as laws regulating smoking in public places and work places.
• No BUTS!: An outreach and training program on responsible retailing to assist retailers in complying with youth access laws.
• Local youth advocacy programs – PTM provides funding and leadership to the Youth Advocacy Program (YAP), a state-level program that is part of the HMP collaborative initiative. The YAP Program is responsible for empowering youth with the skills that they need to create a healthy community (including school community) by learning how to advocate for change. The health focus of the statewide YAP initiative is to prevent tobacco use, motivate those who smoke to quit smoking, decrease public exposure to secondhand smoke, increase physical activity, and encourage healthy eating.