Can You Tax People into Quitting Smoking?(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

On April 1,
smoking in California became much more painful — to people’s wallets, that is.

The harmful
health effects of cigarette smoking are still there — things like an increased risk
of coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.

And
cigarette smoking still causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United
States, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

But thanks
to a statewide ballot
measure approved
last year, California’s cigarette tax is now $2.87 — two dollars more per pack
than its long-time low.

The tobacco
industry spent $71
million to try to defeat
this measure.

With the
increase, California has the ninth highest cigarette tax in the country.

This is well
below New
York’s $4.35 per
pack state tax and Chicago’s $6.16 per pack, which includes both
state and local taxes.

But it’s
much higher than Missouri’s almost invisible 17 cents per pack.

Read more: Smoking rates hit
historic low »

Cigarette taxes
reduce smoking

The goal of
the California tax is to increase the price of cigarettes high enough so that
people quit smoking or never start.

But will it
work?

The simple
answer is “Yes.”

“The bottom
line is that significant tax increases are the single most effective way to
reduce tobacco use,” Frank Chaloupka, PhD, an economist and research professor
of health policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public
Health, told Healthline.

A
“significant” tax means large enough for people to feel the pinch in their
wallet — at least 10 percent of the current price per pack.

“If you
raise the price enough that companies can’t absorb it, or can’t offset it with
their marketing practices,” said Chaloupka, “then you start to see real public
health impact.”

A monograph by the National Cancer Institute, The
Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Control, found that in the United States a 10
percent increase in the price of cigarettes can reduce consumption by 4
percent.

Research at
the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), suggests that the state’s
new cigarette tax will reduce its smoking rate even more. It’s currently around
12
percent.

“We
estimated that just the price effect will cut smoking prevalence over the next
five years to around 7 percent,” Stanton Glantz, PhD, professor of medicine and
director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, told
Healthline. “And that doesn’t even account for the effect of the reinvigorated
anti-smoking program.” 

States
sometimes use cigarette tax revenue to also prop up the state’s budget.

But some
states reinvest a portion of the money into other anti-tobacco measures, which
can boost the health effects of the tax.

“When you
reinvest some of the tax revenues back into comprehensive tobacco control
programs,” said Chaloupka, “you get bigger reductions in adults smoking, bigger
effects on youth smoking, and larger overall reductions in cigarette sales.”

California’s
tobacco control program will receive an estimated $120 million each year from
the new tax, according to a
report on KMIR
television.

This anti-tobacco
program, started 28 years ago, has been credited with preventing more than a
million early deaths due to cigarette smoking, and saving more than $138
billion in healthcare costs.

“I think
with the combined effect of the big price increase and the reinvigorated
anti-smoking program,” said Glantz, “we can very well wipe out tobacco as a
public health problem in five years in California.”

Read more: How many tries to
really quit smoking »

Tax impacts some
groups more

All smokers
will be impacted by California’s new tax, but some groups will feel it more.

According to
the CDC, people
with low incomes,
adults with mental
illness, and the LGBTQ
community all have
higher rates of smoking.

And in
California, the smoking
rate is higher among
African-Americans and Native Americans.

“They are,
by far, carrying a much higher burden of tobacco-induced disease than the general
public,” said Glantz.

People with
low incomes, especially, will be affected because they have less disposable
income.

But they
will also benefit the most.

“They’re the
ones who are smoking, so they’re the ones who are going to pay the tax,” said
Glantz. “But with the increase in price, they’re the ones who are going to quit
smoking.”

The
cigarette tax will also head off smoking among young people.

“We find
that youth uptake of tobacco is two to three times more sensitive to price than
overall tobacco users,” said Chaloupka.

The high
cost of cigarettes can have a big impact on the “transition period” — when
teens are moving from smoking cigarettes bummed from their friends to buying
their own.

Glantz also
expects a boost to California’s economy, as he described in a post on The Conversation.

For every
dollar spent on cigarettes — excluding taxes — 80 cents leaves the state,
flowing mainly to tobacco-producing states.

When people
quit smoking, they spend their money on other things, such as dinner at local
restaurants or going to the movies. More of this money enters the local
economy, where it supports jobs and economic activity.

“Not only is
the tax going to reduce smoking, reduce healthcare costs, and improve health,”
said Glantz, “it’s also going to be a huge job creator in California and a huge
stimulus to economic activity.”

Read more: Rural America, poor
health »

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