The Blake Cady Award for Leadership in Tobacco Control is Tobacco Free Mass’ highest honor. It is given annually to an individual who has contributed greatly to the tobacco control movement in Massachusetts. Our honorees have dedication, passion, and a willingness to find a way to make the impossible possible–qualities that enabled Dr. Blake Cady to revolutionize tobacco control in Massachusetts.

Dr. Blake Cady was the driving force behind 1992’s Question One, the initiative petition that allowed voters to pass a 25-cent tobacco tax and start the Commonwealth’s tobacco control program. Through persuasion, tenacity, and a genuine passion about the issue, he marshaled major health organizations and an army of volunteers to come together to get the issue on the ballot and ensure its passage. That group stayed together and evolved into Tobacco Free Mass.