State needs cigarette tax bump
“A cigarette tax alternative” (Point of View, Sept. 27) by state Rep. Shane Stone overlooked critical facts by focusing exclusively on Oklahoma’s budget woes. As a physician, I am daily caring for people suffering from a myriad of smoking-related illnesses. Unfortunately, this often includes weeping with families saying goodbye to their loved ones.
A $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax increase is a proven strategy to prevent tobaccocaused cancer and save lives. Stone’s support for continued cheap cigarette sales not only negatively impacts Oklahomans’ health, but contributes further to the state’s budget woes.
The true cost of tobacco use for our states’ working families includes the price of cancer and other chronic disease that will take the lives of nearly half of people who become addicted to cigarettes. Because lower-income communities already suffer disproportionately from smoking-caused diseases, a higher cigarette tax rate helps reverse these trends by helping people quit, or even better, not start smoking. These changes directly benefit lowerincome smokers and their families.
Protecting the public health is a major reason we elected our state lawmakers into office. An additional $1.50 tax per pack would sharply reduce youth smoking and keep 28,200 of our kids from becoming addicted to tobacco products while helping 30,400 adults to quit. For a state with a smoking rate that is nearly 50 percent higher than the national average, these are significant numbers.
Also, a $1.50-per-pack increase helps everyone. Cheap cigarettes are killing Oklahomans at an alarming rate and Big Tobacco is leaving Oklahoma taxpayers with the bill for preventable chronic disease. Health care expenditures in our state caused by tobacco use top $1.62 billion per year, meaning that Oklahoma households pay an additional $899 annually in taxes for smoking-caused disease.
Our legislative leaders need to set aside misguided partisan politics. Rarely does the Legislature have such a powerful opportunity to significantly reduce such widespread suffering, death and disease. We need lawmakers to stand up for Oklahoma families and do what’s right for their constituents and not the special interest of the tobacco industry.