Tax increase comes with big lies!

The Marshfield News-Herald has a column that is so full of lies and disinformation that it is almost laughable.

On Tuesday, the price of a pack of cigarettes jumps another 75 cents. That new tax, added to the federal tax increase in April, makes total taxes on a pack of cigarettes $3.53 — and a total price of $6 to $7 per pack.

There will be some bitter complaints about this, and they’re understandable.

That’s an enormous tax on the fifth of adults in this state who smoke, many of whom are lower-income. (About a third of lower-income adults smoke.) There are also those who argue that the state is balancing its budget on the backs of smokers.

But these arguments cloud the purpose of increasing the price of cigarettes.

In public health, we view a cigarette tax increase solely as a market incentive to quit smoking — or to avoid the addiction in the first place.

This claim is almost laughable. All this does is create a black market for the product. This has been proven all over the world, all we have to do is look to our neighbors to the north on this subject. It did not stop teens from smoking as those involved in the black market are already breaking the law and have little incentive not to sell to youth.

Debbie McCulloch, supervisor for the tobacco youth prevention program at Ottawa Public Health says cheap, illegal cigarettes directly target the often cash-strapped teenager.

“That lower price is really a huge problem in terms of younger people having easier access,” said McCulloch.

If they know where to get it, teens can typically buy a plastic bag containing 200 illegal “rollies” for between $10 and $15 – compared to a legal carton, which costs between $70 and $90, said RCMP Sgt. Marc Laporte.

“Because they are not purchased through stores, which require ID, there is no barrier,” said Laporte. “They are more available to teens because instead of sending the older kids to buy cigarettes for the younger ones – the word gets around on who is selling the contraband cigarettes.”

Not to mention the last increase didn’t work!

Although the Quit Tobacco Now program appeared to be successful in helping enrollees quit, it did not attract the large number of smokers organizers intended to reach, said Judy Burrows, director for chronic disease prevention at the Marathon County Health Department.

“We created a model we thought would meet people’s needs,” Burrows said.

The smoking cessation classes ceased after grant money to pay for them ran out, although an affiliated support group will continue through the end of the year. Officials from the Health Department and local health care systems plan to meet today to discuss alternatives, Burrows said.

When the state increased its cigarette tax by $1 per pack at the beginning of the year, health officials expected more smokers to enroll in Quit Tobacco Now

Tobacco-related diseases also cost Wisconsin’s economy more than $1 billion in lost worker productivity.

The only ones making these claims is Tobacco Control actual industry says otherwise!

According to the Bureau of National Affairs and the US Chamber of commerce, businesses that ban smoking don’t really see much in terms of benefit. In fact, according to the BNA, 95% of companies that banned smoking saw no financial savings at all and the US Chamber says that “no significant employee absences can be directly attributed to smoking…”

So, even on Tuesday, the new price for a pack of cigarettes will still be easily outstripped by its actual health-related cost to society — $9.53 per pack.

This one has been debunked so many times that I can’t believe they keep repeating it.

Obese individuals had the highest health care costs from age 20 to 56, and obese individuals and smokers had a higher rate of heart disease than healthy individuals, the study found. However, the study found that obese individuals and smokers had lower lifetime health care costs than healthy individuals because they died earlier.

On average, healthy individuals lived 84 years, compared with 80 years for obese individuals and 77 years for smokers, the study found. Healthy individuals on average had lifetime health care costs of $417,000, compared with $371,000 for obese individuals and $326,000 for smokers, according to the study.

Vanderbilt University economist Kip Viscusi studied the net costs of smoking-related spending and savings and found that for every pack of cigarettes smoked, the country reaps a net cost savings of 32 cents.

We all pay for the cost of tobacco addiction. So dramatically reducing smoking rates is in our collective public health interest. It’s in our state’s economic interest. And it’s in our own financial interest.

What costs you have yet to show any! Ahhh “Collective” a socialist term or is it BORG.

Dona Wininsky is director of Public Policy and Communications for the American Lung Association in Wisconsin and President of the SmokeFree Wisconsin board of directors.

Ahh I see she is the head of two organizations heavily funded by Big Pharma! Dr Siegel points this out in today’s blog.

If the truth is on their side, why do they lie?

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