DOCS: VAPE TAX COULD TURN USERS TO CIGS
But some say it would curb use by teens
Many ex-smokers will turn back to cigarettes if Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed tax on vaporizers passes, experts in the industry say.
The governor proposed the new tax on e-cigarettes — one of the most effective methods of quitting — in his budget at a time when cigarette smoking in the country has reached the lowest level on record.
“I don’t think this is an appropriate proposal from a public health perspective,” Boston University professor of community health sciences Michael Siegel, MD, told the Herald.
“Typically, the main reason why we use taxation in public health is as an incentive to change behaviors. The reason why we imposed cigarette taxes is to decrease cigarette consumption,” Siegel said, citing the same for alcohol taxes. “So it doesn’t make sense to impose a tax which, as a fact, is going to lead to more people smoking.”
The governor’s proposed tax on e-cigarettes would expand the current 40 percent excise imposed on
cigars and smoking tobacco to all vapor products, which is expected to generate $6 million, according to the administration. This would be in addition to the sales tax vapor products are already subject to.
Meanwhile, both the cigarette tax revenue and smoking among adults have been on a steady decline in Massachusetts. The adult smoking rate has gone down from 18.2 percent in 2011 to 13.6 percent in 2016, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s latest data. Nationwide, the percentage of adult smokers reached a historic low of 14 percent in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cigarette tax revenue has dropped by over $65 million since fiscal 2014, during which the state raked in over $660 million from cigarettes, compared to the $594 million in fiscal 2018, state records show.
The leading cause of preventable death, cigarette smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Both Siegel and David Bershad, owner of Vape Daddy’s Inc., a retail vape shop chain, are concerned that an added incentive to the health benefits of quitting smoking — saving a lot of money — will be lost with this tax. Bershad estimates that a pack-a-day smoker would save around $3,500 by switching to e-cigarettes.
“I really do think vaping can make a difference and I’d hate to see the state’s desire to pull in some extra taxes send people back to smoking. I think that would be unfortunate,” Bershad said. “(People are) not going to pay that much but to us — the people in the know — it really is counterproductive for what we’re trying to achieve, and that is to get rid of cigarettes once and for all.”
Even Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel, MD, MPH, who supports the tax, agreed that it will result in price hikes, but hopes that will curb teen usage.
“As a physician and as a mom, the rise in youth vaping deeply concerns me,” Bharel said. “We know that raising prices will reduce the sale and purchase of vaping products and cut into teen usage rates, and that’s a good thing.”
But Bershad and Siegel said that the issue of teen usage distracts from the real purpose of e-cigarettes, which is to help people quit. A recent report from the New England Journal of Medicine showed that e-cigarettes are twice as effective as conventional methods to quit smoking, like gum or patches.
“We now know that vaping products are more effective than traditional nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation,” Siegel said. “If that’s the case, why create an economic disincentive for smokers to use these products?”