by Diane Quinn

Created on: July 05, 2007   Last Updated: July 24, 2009

It occurs to me that smokers should view cigarette taxes as a "tough love" approach from our government. When smokers ask themselves if high taxes on cigarettes are fair, perhaps they should view the issue from another perspective. It could be that high taxes are our government's way of saying, "we love you enough to make it difficult for you to kill yourself."

This year, on April 1, 2009, the largest tax ever was levied on a single pack of cigarettes by a whopping increase of 62 cents, up from 39 cents. To counter the anticipated loss in revenue, cigarette companies have also raised their prices. This year's taxes will be used to fund children's health care programs, a part of President Obama's health care overall plan, and they are projected to raise $33 billion over 4.5 years.

I doubt that this is much of a solace to smokers who already feel unfairly stressed economically. Yet the realities of their habit-of-choice is a health care system burdened with people in varying stages of decline and who require expensive medical care on our already over-burdened system. While it may be easy for a smoker to live in denial about the true realities of their habit, it's not so easy for the millions of non-smokers left to pay higher health care premiums resulting from an addictive habit that is not theirs.

Our government should not pander to this addiction. Perhaps the tax on cigarettes won't seem so economically burdensome if the time ever comes when smoking comes under harsher restrictions. It's already banned from public buildings and some communities even ban it in public parks. This is a dangerous habit not just for the smoker who exercises their right to smoke, but even worse for non-smokers whose right to clean air is taken away if they are forced to share common space with a smoker.

It is true that our health care system is over-burdened from a multitude of bad habits, like food addictions that cause obesity and alcohol related problems. Cigarette smokers are right to believe that any type of bad habit or addiction that causes health problems should also be taxed equally. Toward this end, there are taxes under consideration now that may equalize the taxation playing field and help smokers feel they are being treated more fairly.

It is estimated that 20 percent of America's population still smokes cigarettes. Another estimate projects that up to five percent of this group will stop smoking because of the recent tax hikes this year. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids also predicts a drop of up to seven percent among young tobacco users.

It if takes higher and higher taxes to finally motivate hardcore smokers to cast off a habit that's killing them and draining our health care system of important resources, then I believe even higher taxes may well be justified in the future.

Statistic Souce: http://www.mahalo.com/cigarette-tax

Aren'tNewsday.com: Smokers hit with $0.62 cigarette tax... (March 30, 2009)

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