WDAY/WDAZ: North Dakota may soon have to decide to increase taxes on tobacco products, including e-cigarettes

By WDAY / WDAZ Staff

Grand Forks, ND (WDAY/WDAZ TV) – North Dakota will have to decide on whether to increase taxes on not only tobacco products, but also e-cigs.

If passed, traditional cigarette tax will go from $0.44 a pack to $2.20.

Vaping product liquid tax would then increase from 28% to 56%.

Owners of SNG Vapor in Grand Forks say e-cigs have helped many people quit smoking traditional cigarettes.

A question that many people have is whether or not E-Cigs are considered tobacco products.

Public health officials and backers of the measure argue that liquid nicotine used in electronic cigarettes is but, users disagree saying that the two very different

“The FDA hasn’t made their deeming regulations. It’s not fair to lump us in with tobacco. Tobacco is combustion, tobacco is a leaf, it’s the grainy portion you know it’s the physical part it’s not a liquid. It’s not creating any fire it’s not creating a spark it’s not burning anything that’s bad for you and we’ve taken all the excess junk out of all of the between  4000 to 6000 chemicals in a normal cigarette and we dumbed it down to just four things,” said Heather Nelson of SNG Vapor.

Minnesota became the first state to tax vapor products in 2012 by imposing a tax of 95% of their wholesale price.

http://www.wday.com/news/3995693-north-dakota-may-soon-have-decide-increase-taxes-tobacco-products-including-e

Drug Store News: CDC's latest anti-smoking campaign inspired 104,000 smokers to quit

BY MICHAEL JOHNSEN

ATLANTA – The latest outcomes measuring the impact of CDC’s national tobacco education campaign are as strong as those achieved in its first year, and suggest that three years into the campaign, the ads were still having a significant impact.

More than 1.8 million smokers attempted to quit smoking because of the nine-week-long 2014 Tips From Former Smokers ( Tips ) campaign. An estimated 104,000 Americans quit smoking for good as a result of the 2014 campaign.

The survey results are published in the March 24 release of the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Unlike the 2012 campaign, which aired for 12 consecutive weeks, the 2014 campaign aired in two phases, from Feb. 3 to April 6 and from July 7 to Sept. 7. Phase 1 of the 2014 campaign ran ads primarily from the 2012 and 2013 campaigns; Phase 2 contained new ads. Those new ads featured people and their struggles with smoking-related health issues, including cancer, gum disease, premature birth and stroke caused by smoking combined with HIV. About 80% of U.S. adult cigarette smokers who were surveyed reported seeing at least one television ad from Phase 2 of the 2014 campaign.

“CDC’s Tips campaign has helped at least 400,000 smokers quit smoking for good since 2012,” stated CDC Director Tom Frieden.  “Tips is also extremely cost-effective and a best buy, saving both lives and money. With a year-round campaign we could save even more lives and money.”

Tips, the first federally funded anti-smoking paid media campaign, features former smokers talking about their smoking-related illnesses. Smoking-related diseases cost the United States more than $300 billion a year, including nearly $170 billion in direct health care costs and more than $156 billion in lost productivity.

“The Tips campaign is an important counter measure to the $1 million that the tobacco industry spends each hour on cigarette advertising and promotion,” said Corinne Graffunder, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “The money spent in one year on Tips is less than the amount the tobacco industry spends on advertising and promotion in just 3 days.”

The most recent Surgeon General’s Report, The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress, called for airing effective messages such as the Tips ads with high frequency and exposure for 12 months a year for a decade or more. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, killing about 480,000 Americans each year.

For every American who dies from a smoking-related disease, about 30 more suffer at least one serious illness from smoking. And while the percentage of American adults who smoke is at the lowest level since the CDC began tracking such data, there are still an estimated 40 million adult smokers in the U.S.  Surveys show about 70% of all smokers want to quit, and research shows quitting completely at any age has significant health benefits.

http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/cdcs-latest-anti-smoking-campaign-inspired-10000-smokers-quit

Drug Store News: CDC's latest anti-smoking campaign inspired 104,000 smokers to quit

BY MICHAEL JOHNSEN

ATLANTA – The latest outcomes measuring the impact of CDC’s national tobacco education campaign are as strong as those achieved in its first year, and suggest that three years into the campaign, the ads were still having a significant impact.

More than 1.8 million smokers attempted to quit smoking because of the nine-week-long 2014 Tips From Former Smokers ( Tips ) campaign. An estimated 104,000 Americans quit smoking for good as a result of the 2014 campaign.

The survey results are published in the March 24 release of the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Unlike the 2012 campaign, which aired for 12 consecutive weeks, the 2014 campaign aired in two phases, from Feb. 3 to April 6 and from July 7 to Sept. 7. Phase 1 of the 2014 campaign ran ads primarily from the 2012 and 2013 campaigns; Phase 2 contained new ads. Those new ads featured people and their struggles with smoking-related health issues, including cancer, gum disease, premature birth and stroke caused by smoking combined with HIV. About 80% of U.S. adult cigarette smokers who were surveyed reported seeing at least one television ad from Phase 2 of the 2014 campaign.

“CDC’s Tips campaign has helped at least 400,000 smokers quit smoking for good since 2012,” stated CDC Director Tom Frieden.  “Tips is also extremely cost-effective and a best buy, saving both lives and money. With a year-round campaign we could save even more lives and money.”

Tips, the first federally funded anti-smoking paid media campaign, features former smokers talking about their smoking-related illnesses. Smoking-related diseases cost the United States more than $300 billion a year, including nearly $170 billion in direct health care costs and more than $156 billion in lost productivity.

“The Tips campaign is an important counter measure to the $1 million that the tobacco industry spends each hour on cigarette advertising and promotion,” said Corinne Graffunder, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “The money spent in one year on Tips is less than the amount the tobacco industry spends on advertising and promotion in just 3 days.”

The most recent Surgeon General’s Report, The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress, called for airing effective messages such as the Tips ads with high frequency and exposure for 12 months a year for a decade or more. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, killing about 480,000 Americans each year.

For every American who dies from a smoking-related disease, about 30 more suffer at least one serious illness from smoking. And while the percentage of American adults who smoke is at the lowest level since the CDC began tracking such data, there are still an estimated 40 million adult smokers in the U.S.  Surveys show about 70% of all smokers want to quit, and research shows quitting completely at any age has significant health benefits.

http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/cdcs-latest-anti-smoking-campaign-inspired-10000-smokers-quit

ESPN: New York approves smokeless tobacco ban at sporting events

Adam Rubin, ESPN Staff Writer

Smokeless tobacco will soon be off-limits for players and patrons at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium.

The New York City Council approved a ban on smokeless tobacco at ticketed sporting events on Tuesday afternoon by a vote of 44-3. The law is due to take effect immediately once Mayor Bill de Blasio signs the bill, which is expected to be a formality.

“Today we’re taking tobacco out of baseball in New York City,” council member Corey Johnson said. “In New York City we’ve seen smoking rates precipitously decline, but chewing tobacco use has remained steady. When athletes who are role models to children are regularly shown on TV using smokeless tobacco, that sends a harmful message.

“By allowing smokeless tobacco at the ballparks, we are sending mixed signals about the dangers of tobacco use. There may not be many baseball issues where Mets and Yankees fans can agree, but this certainly is one of them.”

Chicago last week joined San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles in enacting a similar ban.

Yankees setup man Andrew Miller said players will not picket over the issue, but he did allude to some players being addicted to the otherwise legal substance, which makes the situation tricky.

“It is what it is,” said Miller, who once chewed tobacco but says he doesn’t anymore. “I didn’t vote on it. I didn’t put it into effect. I didn’t publicly ask one way or the other for it. It is just something we are going to have to deal with. People will have to find a way to approach it and how strictly it will be enforced.”

The penalty in New York is expected to match the fine for smoking where it is prohibited in the city, roughly $100.

“There are different tobacco laws in place for multiple different states — obviously smoking and smokeless,” New York Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson said. “So it’s not something that surprises me if New York or Citi Field were to go ahead and pass something like this. The only question we have is, the guys who do it, how do they know what’s going on?

“The Players’ Association is going to provide alternatives for them. But if a player accidentally chooses to do it, will he get a citation? Will we stop the game? And will the same thing happen to the fans in attendance? That hasn’t been identified yet, so we’re still waiting to hear that.”

ESPN’s Andrew Marchand contributed to this report.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15045514/new-york-city-approves-smokeless-tobacco-ban-sporting-events

AP: Ohio’s infant mortality panel recommends tobacco tax hike

ANN SANNER, Associated Press

COLUMBUS – Ohio lawmakers should increase the tobacco tax, raise the tobacco-buying age to 21 and ban the sale of crib bumpers, according to a state panel tasked with addressing infant mortality.

The recommendations are among dozens in a report by the Ohio Commission on Infant Mortality released Tuesday.

Ohio’s infant mortality rate has been among the worst in the nation. Infant mortality is measured as deaths of live-born babies before their first birthdays. The three leading causes in Ohio are pre-term births, sleep-related deaths and birth defects.

The state’s overall infant mortality rate was 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, according the most recent data from 2014. And the rate for black babies was roughly three times that of whites.

Lawmakers created the commission last year to take an inventory of state programs that seek to combat infant mortality. Its recommendations come as the state has been working with hospitals, community groups, local health departments and others in nine urban areas with high rates of infant deaths. Such partnerships seek to address issues high-risk groups face, such as access to food, health care, transportation and social supports.

State Sen. Shannon Jones, a Springboro Republican who co-chaired the commission, said Ohio’s infant mortality problem disproportionately affects low-income black families in urban neighborhoods that have “largely been left behind as the economy has grown.”

“Birth outcomes simply cannot improve unless we address these adverse conditions and underlying inequities found in the places where many of these families live,” Jones said in releasing the commission’s report at a Statehouse press conference.

The report includes policy recommendations for state lawmakers, state agencies, infant mortality collaborative organizations and state grantees.

The commission did not call for a specific tobacco tax increase, though Jones said she plans to include the idea in legislation she and Democratic Sen. Charleta Tavares of Columbus are expected to introduce.

Other recommendations from the commission include:

— Publishing statewide infant mortality data each quarter.

— Requiring cultural competency training for health care providers.

— Permitting pharmacists to administer the hormone progesterone and contraceptive injections of Depo-Provera.

— Specifying pregnancy as a priority in emergency shelter and housing tax credit programs.

— Placing pregnant women in family homeless shelters rather than single adult shelters.

Online:

Ohio Commission on Infant Mortality: http://1.usa.gov/1LEtZbZ

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/22/ohios-infant-mortality-panel-recommends-tobacco-tax-hike/82140650/

USA Today Editorial Board: Raise cigarette sales age and see: Our view

The Editorial Board

When California lawmakers voted this month to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21, they joined Hawaii and more than 100 localities in seeking a new way to prevent vulnerable teenagers from getting hooked.

Almost everyone who smokes started by age 18, research shows. The tobacco industry, among the world’s slickest marketers, has known and used that fact to its benefit for decades. “Raising the legal minimum age for cigarette purchaser to 21 could gut our key young adult market (17-20) where we sell about 25 billion cigarettes,” a Phillip Morris report noted in 1986.

This suggests that raising the age is worth a try. Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., ought to sign the measure, and careful study is warranted to find out to what degree the change  affects teen smoking.

Parents and public health advocates shouldn’t get their hopes too high. Teenage behavior is unpredictable and resourceful; many teens use fake IDs to buy alcohol and no doubt would do the same for tobacco. But unless a few states make the change, the value can’t be calculated. Right now, all but five states set the legal purchase age at 18. In Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah, it is 19. Hawaii went to 21 on Jan. 1.

Although smoking rates among high school seniors have fallen drastically, from 33.5% in 1995 to 11.4% last year, that still leaves millions of adolescents addicted and vulnerable in later years to cancer, heart disease and premature death. Raising taxes, running anti-smoking ad campaigns, and making smoking less cool  have worked, but more is needed.

Last year, the respected Institute of Medicine projected that if the legal age were raised to 21, by the time today’s teenagers became adults smoking prevalence would be cut by 12%. The greatest impact, the IOM found, would likely be among teens 15 to 17. Meanwhile, other avenues of getting cigarettes are drying up: Vending machines have all but vanished, and less than 10% of stores sell illegally to minors.

Plenty of reasons exist to try to cut further into youth smoking. Nicotine exposure during adolescence is likely to adversely affect cognitive function and development. Adolescents are more prone to addiction than adults because parts of the brain most responsible for decision-making, impulse control and susceptibility to peer pressure are still developing. As for the health effects, the risks for smoking-related illness rise not only with the number of cigarettes smoked per day but also with the number of years a person smokes.

The most persistent argument against raising the age is that at 18, people have the right to marry, to vote and to serve in the military, so they should be able to choose to smoke. But society does set 21 as the age for another dangerous activity, drinking alcohol — a change that has prevented about 900 drunken driving deaths per year. Smoking is the public’s business, too: Everyone helps pick up the tab for the enormous health care costs of tobacco-related illnesses.

In Finland, daily smoking dropped significantly among 14- to 16-year-olds after the legal age was raised from 16 to 18 and enforcement was bolstered. There’s no comparable research in the United States, which is precisely the point. Given the tobacco industry’s success in getting young people hooked, teenagers deserve to find out whether the U.S. has been missing a powerful tool to save their lives.

USA TODAY’s editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/21/cigarettes-21-sales-age-california-hawaii-editorials-debates/81730332/

Dr. Eric Johnson: Tobacco tax will deter young people from using products

By Dr. Eric Johnson, Grand Forks – Jamestown Sun

As a Grand Forks physician and chairman of the recently announced efforts to initiate a ballot measure to increase North Dakota’s tobacco taxes, it’s important the public be given the facts right off the bat.

First, North Dakota’s tobacco taxes have not been increased since 1993, ranking us 47th in the nation for cigarette tax rates. If passed, this measure would bring North Dakota’s cigarette tax from 44 cents per pack to $2.20 per pack, just slightly above the average of $2.08 per pack of our neighboring states.

Second, it will treat the liquid nicotine drug (smoked via electronic cigarettes) and those who sell it exactly the same as all other tobacco products.

Third, it will dedicate current revenues exactly where they currently are: to the state’s general fund and back to North Dakota’s cities. New revenues generated from the increase will be split evening between a fund created to support the unmet needs of North Dakota’s veterans and a fund to support health programs associated with chronic disease treatment, county health programs and the mental health and addiction crisis facing our state.

Luckily, North Dakota already fully funds a tobacco prevention program utilizing a small portion of the money won by the state of North Dakota when it sued tobacco companies in 1998 for lying to the public and to Congress about the deadly impacts of tobacco. No moneys from this measure will go toward these efforts.

These are the facts. Seventy-five percent of adult tobacco users started before the age of 18. Significant tobacco tax increases are proven as the most effective way to keep young people from ever starting tobacco. That’s an effort we can all support.

http://www.jamestownsun.com/letters/3990656-tobacco-tax-will-deter-young-people-using-products

Bismarck Tribune: Coalition pushes tobacco tax measure

By NICK SMITH, Bismarck Tribune

Photo by Tom Stromme, Bismarck Tribune

Photo by Tom Stromme, Bismarck Tribune


Members of a coalition seeking an increase in the state’s tobacco tax say their proposed increase would reduce smoking rates as well as state health care costs among other benefits.
“That’s the missing leg of the three-legged stool,” Eric Johnson, a Grand Forks physician and head of the measure’s sponsoring committee, Raise It for Health North Dakota.
Two-thirds of North Dakota voters in 2012 approved a ballot measure making public places smoke-free. In 2008, nearly 54 percent of voters approved the creation of a state tobacco prevention and control program.
Other states that have raised the tax have seen decreases in smoking, according to Johnson, adding that the measure will help beef up the state’s tobacco prevention efforts.
“This is a tax nobody has to pay. It’s a product that creates death,” Johnson said.
Kristie Wolff, with the American Lung Association in North Dakota, said the measure would increase the tobacco tax for cigarettes in North Dakota from 44 cents per pack to $2.20. Taxes on liquid nicotine products would be increased from 28 percent of the wholesale purchase price to 56 percent.
The national average tax on a pack of cigarettes is $1.61.
New tax revenues created through the measure, estimated at about $100 million per biennium, would be split between health-related programs in the state’s Community Health Trust Fund as well as a newly created Veterans Tobacco Tax Trust Fund.
“We’re confident that North Dakota voters will respond positively yet again,” Wolff said.
Only Georgia, Missouri and Virginia have lower tobacco taxes than North Dakota. The tobacco tax in North Dakota hasn’t been raised since 1993.
Being a statutory initiative, 13,452 legitimate signatures will be required at least 120 days before the election. The deadline for turning in signatures for the Nov. 8 election is July 11.
Several unsuccessful attempts have been legislatively in the year since the last tax increase.
Wolff said the increase would bring North Dakota in line with the surrounding states in the tax per pack of cigarettes. The tax in Minnesota is $3 per pack, in Montana it’s $1.70 and in South Dakota it’s $1.53.
“We based it on polling we’ve done,” Wolff told reporters when asked how the group came to the $1.76 per pack increase being proposed.
According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the tax increase could result in a 20 percent drop in youth smoking, preventing about 5,800 youths from becoming adult smokers, Johnson said.
North Dakota Retail Association president Mike Rud said the group he leads will need to review the measure language and watch to see if it gets the necessary signatures for a vote. The group opposed both 2015 bills.
Rud said on first glance the proposed increase is substantial, adding that taxing cigarettes would negatively impact lower-income smokers.
“Taxing a group that can least afford it? It’s a bit troublesome to us,” said Rud, clarifying that tobacco products aren’t illegal and retailers sell them to meet demand among legal buyers.
“There’s got to be a limit to how involved we get with these things,” Rud said.
For more information on ballot petitions being circulated, visit sos.nd.gov.
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/coalition-pushes-tobacco-tax-measure/article_ecf65fc0-d7ee-5458-9407-3088d50a3aed.html

Valley News Live: Coalition wants to raise North Dakota tobacco tax

By: Natalie Parsons
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) It has been proposed in the state of North Dakota to raise the tax on tobacco products.
If it passes, you will see it on your ballot this November.
Supporters already started collecting some of the required 13,000 plus signatures.
North Dakota has not increased its tobacco tax since 1993 and now the Raise It For Health North Dakota coalition thinks it’s time.
The proposed tobacco tax will increase the tax on cigarettes from $0.44 per pack up to $2.20 per pack.
Scott Platfers says, “Going to have to pay more if I want to continue but I’m hoping that it might deter me too because it’s something I’ve been wanting to quit for a long time.”
The ultimate goal for this tobacco tax increase is to hopefully decrease youth smoking by 20 percent and prevent 5800 youth from ever starting.
The Fargo smoker says, “It’s not going to prevent all of them but I think it’s going to get some of them and every little bit helps.”
The coalition has already started getting signatures on this initiated measure.
The petition needs exactly 13,452 signatures in order appear on the November 8th ballot.
Platfers says, “It’s a double edged sword. It’ll effect me but as long as it would help somebody? Yeah, I would sign it.”
The proposed tobacco tax is estimated to bring in over $100-million new revenue to North Dakota with plans to go towards many health care services.
http://www.valleynewslive.com/home/headlines/Coalition-to-raise-North-Dakota-tobacco-tax-372303722.html

KX News: Raise It For Health North Dakota Coalition Seeks Tobacco Tax Change

By Kaitlyn Wurnig
It will require 13,452 signatures and a yes vote, but the Raise it for Health North Dakota coalition is seeking a change. A change North Dakota has not had in 23 years.
“Increasing the price of tobacco is one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking and other tobacco use, especially among youth,” says Kristie Wolff, American Lung Association.
The coalition submitted a petition to the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office Wednesday to initiate a ballot measure. The ballot measure calls for a tax increase on cigarettes and tobacco products in North Dakota.
“In other states including our neighboring state of Minnesota, we have seen increasing the price of tobacco has reduced smoking across all populations,” says Dr. Eric Johnson, Ballot Chairman.
The proposed measure would increase the tax on cigarettes from 44 cents per pack to $2.20 per pack. Other tobacco products would increase from 28 percent of the wholesale purchase price to 56 percent. Ballot Chairman, Dr. Eric Johnson says the $1.76 increase is estimated to decrease youth smoking and save millions in health care costs.
“With the strong medical evidence to support this initiative, we need to pay attention to the facts,” says Dr. Johnson.
Some people would agree.
“I think it’s a good idea because maybe it’ll give more people an idea of how much money they’re wasting on such a stupid product,” says Gage McMahen.
“In a way it could be good because now they have to spend more for tobacco and it could cut down on younger kids quitting,” says Atlantis Belgarde.
Others don’t support the idea.
“Absolutely not because well for one I’m a smoker. Not that I say smoking is good for ya, but they’re constantly raising taxes on things regardless of who they think it affects and I just don’t feel that raising taxes is a good thing,” says Keith Eiss.
If the measure does pass, 50 percent of the new revenues would go to a veterans tobacco trust fund.  The other 50 percent would benefit a community health trust fund.
North Dakota currently ranks 47th in the nation for tobacco tax rates.
The national average per pack is $1.61.
Read more or watch video: http://www.kxnet.com/story/31488549/raise-it-for-health-north-dakota-coalition-seeks-tobacco-tax-change