Op Ed: How to lower Grand Forks’ high tobacco-use rates

By: Theresa Knox

On Feb. 23, the Herald ran a story about the dismal rates among adults of chewing tobacco use (“N.D. ranks highly in smokeless tobacco use,” Page A1).

As the story reported, North Dakota was ranked 49th out of 50 states and District of Columbia, with 7.6 percent of its adults using smokeless tobacco.

The story went on to interview several people with personal stories about the toll of tobacco in their lives. It ended with the quote, “They all know someone who’s died from tobacco-related cancer.”

These statistics are terrible. And they are not just statistics. As the article referenced, each number represents a person. These are people we know and love — people we work with, and people whom we don’t want to see sick and dying from the No. 1 cause of preventable death: tobacco use.

Nearly one quarter of high school boys in North Dakota use smokeless tobacco (22 percent). That is higher than the adult use rate and the fifth worst in the country.

We know that most smokers begin their addictive habit before the age of 18, and nearly 4,000 kids try their first cigarette every day. That’s almost 1.5 million young people per year.

The tobacco industry pours billions into advertising to create a perception that tobacco use is fun and glamorous.

But, guess what? We don’t have billions to counteract that type of messaging — and we don’t need it.

There is a solution that is nearly free of charge; and it works. Research bears out this claim.

I will tell you what that solution is, but first, ask yourself this question: Is it easier to quit using tobacco or to avoid ever taking up the habit?

It is easier (and cheaper) to avoid taking up this addictive habit.

Second, I ask you to rethink your attitudes about tobacco use and why it is not acceptable in indoor and outdoor public places. There is no denying that second-hand smoke and toxic litter from cigarette butts and spitting on the ground are bad for people and animals. But there is an even more important reason to prohibit tobacco use in indoor and outdoor public places: Public policy that keeps kids from seeing tobacco use as a normal activity will decrease youth initiation of tobacco use.

Remember, most people don’t chew or smoke tobacco.

An effective way to keep our next generation of North Dakotans from ever taking up using tobacco is to pass laws that keep tobacco use –including e-cigarettes, cigarettes and smokeless tobacco — out of our parks.

We can pass public policy that creates tobacco free environments. These policies don’t tell people they can’t use tobacco, if they choose to use. People are still free to smoke or chew. These policies prevent the use of products in otherwise safe and healthy places.

Grand Forks Park Board commissioners have the chance to take a deliberate and determined step to protect the health and safety of Grand Forks youth by adopting a comprehensive tobacco-free parks policy. They can take the lead to separate the connection between sports and chew, parks and tobacco.

And the result?

We know the result. A comprehensive tobacco-free parks policy, prohibiting use of all tobacco products in all Park District parks, grounds and facilities will result in cleaner parks and less secondhand smoke exposure.

And the most celebrated result?

Fewer Grand Forks youth will start using tobacco, and fewer among the next generation of North Dakotans will struggle with tobacco addiction and the toll of the illness and death that result from tobacco.

That is the solution. And it costs next to nothing.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/opinion/op-ed-columns/3688567-theresa-knox-how-lower-grand-forks-high-tobacco-use-rates

North Dakota ranks poorly in smokeless tobacco use

By Robin Huebner Forum News Service
FARGO — Chris Carlson’s nicotine habit started with chewing tobacco and his college fraternity brothers.
He really got hooked in the mid ’80s as an exchange student in Sweden, where he says everyone – including his female classmates – chewed the smokeless tobacco known as “snus.”
“I’ve got warm, sweet memories of the time,” said Carlson, 51, Fargo, who teaches college public speaking courses and is an adjunct instructor of Norwegian and Scandinavian studies at Concordia College.
While Carlson fondly recalls the rituals and relaxed feelings he said went along with using smokeless tobacco, his memory of that 24-year period is selective.
“You don’t remember all the times it made you nauseous,” he said.
Carlson also smoked cigarettes, but at the urging of his children, gave up both vices about eight years ago with the help of nicotine gum.
He fully understands the difficulty in quitting a substance that is highly addicting and deeply rooted in culture.
At a time when anti-smoking laws have carved out a strong foothold in North Dakota, the state is at the other end of the spectrum with smokeless tobacco.
Statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that North Dakota is in the middle of the pack for cigarette smoking, but is third worst – behind Wyoming and Mississippi – in the percentage of adults who use chewing tobacco or snuff.
The ranking lists all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
North Dakota was ranked 49th with 7.6 percent of its adults using smokeless tobacco in 2011 – the most recent year for which numbers are available.
South Dakota ranked 43rd with 6.8 percent, and Minnesota was 32nd with 4.8 percent of adults using smokeless tobacco.
The highest percentage of smokeless tobacco users in North Dakota by race are American Indians, who double up on the number of Caucasians using it.
A tribal tradition
Neil Charvat is a former smoker and smokeless tobacco user whose career now focuses on preventing people from picking up the habit.
Charvat, 44, works closely with the state’s Indian reservations as director of the tobacco prevention and control program for the North Dakota Department of Health in Bismarck.
While the state’s smoke-free laws don’t apply to reservations because of their sovereign nation status, the state does fund tribal tobacco prevention programs.
Charvat said it can be tricky educating American Indians about tobacco because the traditional form of it is often central to their religious beliefs.
“If we say, ‘Tobacco is bad,’ that’s a direct insult to their religion,” he said.
So when tribal educators go into schools on the reservation, they make an important distinction from the very start.
“We teach from the viewpoint of it being commercial vs. traditional tobacco,” said Jackie Giron, tobacco prevention coordinator for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
Charvat said traditional tobacco grown by tribes doesn’t contain the additives and chemicals that commercial tobacco contains.
In addition, it’s meant for ceremonial use only – not recreation.
In some cases, addictions took hold after tribes began using commercial tobacco for those ceremonies when they weren’t able to obtain traditional tobacco, Charvat said.
As years went on, some commercial tobacco companies even sponsored powwows.
“They portrayed it as something sacred and not harmful to you, which it is,” Giron said.
She said she sees both adults and children chewing tobacco at Turtle Mountain. It means the education process needs to start early, in kids as young as 3 and 4 – and continue through high school and college, she said.
“All you can do is take baby steps sometimes,” Giron said.
Just as dangerous
One challenge in keeping people from starting with smokeless tobacco and helping them quit involves a common, but mistaken belief.
“Some of that has to do with the misconception that if you don’t inhale, it might be somewhat safer,” said Holly Scott, a tobacco prevention coordinator at Fargo Cass Public Health.
In fact, it’s equally as risky.
“When chewing, they’re actually getting more nicotine than in cigarettes, increasing their nicotine addiction,” said Melissa Markegard, who is also a tobacco prevention coordinator at Fargo Cass Public Health.
The incidence of many types of cancer and other diseases can be attributed to smoking and/or chewing tobacco, but combining the products makes it even worse.
“It greatly increases (the risk of lung cancer) if they use both together,” Markegard said.
While there are fewer opportunities than ever to smoke in North Dakota, the same restrictions don’t apply to chewing tobacco because it’s easier to hide.
Charvat said as a teen, he used to smoke a cigarette outside of his school, and then tuck a chew into his mouth before going to class.
Youth at risk
A survey of more than 10,500 North Dakota high school students in 2013 found 13.8 percent of them had used chewing tobacco, snuff or dip during the past 30 days.
It also found chewing tobacco is more often used in smaller towns than in urban centers – 15.1 percent to 11.2 percent, respectively.
“In Western and rural cultures, it’s more commonplace and accepted,” Charvat said.
According to the survey, the Williston area had the highest incidence of chewing tobacco use in high school students, while the Grand Forks area had the lowest.
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a collaboration of federal, state and local health education agencies, will be conducted again this spring.
Scott said her overall goal is to “de-normalize” all tobacco use because it’s the state’s No. 1 cause of preventable disease and death.
Charvat is optimistic North Dakota will show up better the next time rankings are compiled because the people he’s working with are motivated.
“They all know someone who’s died from tobacco- related cancer,” he said.
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/north-dakota-ranks-poorly-in-smokeless-tobacco-use/article_86fa27cb-e925-5210-9ee7-2456e943dbde.html

Letter: Support e-cigarette age restrictions

By Tom Woodmansee, Bismarck

House Bill 1265 would require e-vapor products (commonly referred to as e-cigarettes) to be sold only to adults 18 years of age and above, an important goal that we should all agree on. We support enactment of underage access prevention for e-vapors and alternative nicotine products, which is why we support House Bill 1265.
This bill includes broad definitions to ensure that these new product forms are included in North Dakota’s existing underage access prevention laws.
Products that contain nicotine, whether they are traditional tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars or smokeless tobacco or new e-vapor products, are for adults only. We don’t believe people who are under legal age should be purchasing these products. Currently, 41 states prohibit sale of e-vapor products to minors.
The bill would also establish statewide policy regarding sales of these new types of products such as e-vapor. This bill would provide uniform policy for e-vapor and alternative nicotine product sales across North Dakota and avoid a patchwork of differing local restrictions or ordinances that could cause confusion among adult consumers and retailers.
That’s why we support this legislation to help ensure that e-vapor products are only available to adult consumers and to support retailers in having uniform state standards for tobacco and alternative nicotine product sales to continue to help address underage access to all types of products that contain nicotine.
Let’s do the right thing and pass House Bill 1265. It’s the responsible approach that will help make these products only available to adults and out of kids’ hands.
Woodmansee is with the North Dakota Grocers Association.
http://www.inforum.com/letters/3684232-letter-support-e-cigarette-age-restrictions

Cigarette tax and e cigarettes debated in ND legislature

By KX News

Bismarck, ND -A bill that would have substantially raised taxes on cigarettes in North Dakota failed Friday afternoon.
But two others limiting access to electronic cigarettes passed.
The proposed cigarette tax would have raised taxes more than 200 percent on a package of cigarettes.
Currently the cigarette tax in North Dakota is 44 cents.
By contrast, the tax in Minnesota is 2.90 and in South Dakota it’s a 1.53.
Supporters of the bill say the increase would reduce the number of smokers and lower health care costs.
“Whenever a tobacco tax is increased, smoking, especially youth smoking goes down and it goes down dramatically. That I believe is undeniable,” says Rep. Jon Nelson, R – Rugby.
Bill opponents argued that a tax won’t stop smoking, and burdens business.
“If it truly is our duty to coerce people into a healthy lifestyle through taxation, why don’t we tax fast food with high fat content and high cholesterol, all things supersized and salt,” says Rep. Rick Becker, R – Bismarck.
The cigarette tax bill failed by a 56-34 vote.
The house passed two bills designed to keep e-cigarettes away from kids.
The two bills differ in these ways —
One labels e-cigarettes as tobacco products, tying them to the laws and enforcement already in place for cigarettes.
Those laws include things like compliance checks from local police and how cigarettes are displayed in stores.
The other bill separates e-cigarettes into their own category with their own set of enforcement laws.
“I don’t know how we can separate the idea of discussing e-cigarettes and then we’re going to talk about the taxing of tobacco when it’s clearly a tobacco product,” says Rep. Kenton Onstad, D – Parshall.
“We do not want kids under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes, whether it be on the internet, whether it be in the store. E-cigarettes, anywhere. We don’t want them to by regular cigarettes, we don’t want them to buy e-cigarettes,” says Rep. Al Carlson, R – Fargo.
Both bills now move to the Senate where only one, if any, is likely to pass.
http://www.wdaz.com/news/north-dakota/3679119-cigarette-tax-and-e-cigarettes-debated-nd-legislature

Forum editorial: Raise cigarette tax in ND

North Dakota should raise taxes on tobacco products. The state’s tax is among the lowest in the nation (44 cents on a pack of cigarettes); indeed lower than some of the major tobacco-growing states.
Raising the tax, which has been at an embarrassing low level for decades, comports nicely with North Dakota’s successful anti-tobacco public health efforts, and specifically would deter young people from buying cigarettes. Every state that has raised cigarette taxes has found it is a significant factor in preventing youngsters and young adults from buying.
Two bills are in the legislative hopper. A House bill calls for an increase to $1.56 a pack; a Senate bill would raise the tax to $1.10. Both bills have bipartisan sponsors, recognition that recent public opinion surveys found support for a higher tax among all political persuasions, with the only resistance to a higher tax coming from smokers. The tax increases in both bills are too low, but would be a start if a majority of lawmakers see the issue for what it is: a public health initiative, not retail sales problem.
It is first and foremost a public health matter. Of course retail sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products would take a hit. That’s the aim of a higher tax. So the crux of the matter is the choice posited by columnist Steve Andrist in the Crosby (N.D.) Journal: “In the final analysis, it comes down to what you want to save: sales or lives.”
The retail lobby and legislators who oppose a higher tax are confronted with that stark choice.
The most recent poll of North Dakotans’ attitudes about a higher tobacco tax (and the e-cigarette phenomenon) shows a majority of all partisan subgroups support an increase. Not surprisingly, the state’s smoke-free law, which was resisted for years by the Legislature and was at last approved by ballot measure, has support across all partisan and demographic lines, according to the December 2014 Public Opinion Strategies poll.
Furthermore, the polling found that attempts to allow e-cigarettes in public places (that is, exempt them from the state’s tobacco restrictions law), “is a non-starter with North Dakotans.” The few lawmakers pushing e-cig exemptions might want to rethink their proposals.
Finally, the lesson of the Legislature’s longtime refusal to act on a statewide tobacco-use ban is instructive for the tax debate. A ballot measure to enact a ban – after several cities, large and small had imposed their own bans – easily passed a statewide vote. It was a clear repudiation of the Legislature’s intransigence on the tobacco issue.
If lawmakers remain in the pocket of a shortsighted and out-of-step retail lobby (the same group that vigorously fought a statewide smoking ban), North Dakotans would be justified in taking the tobacco tax to the ballot. All indications suggest it would win easy approval.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
http://www.inforum.com/opinion/editorials/3675987-forum-editorial-raise-cigarette-tax-nd

ND House to vote on raising the tobacco tax this week

By WDAY News

Bismarck, ND (WDAY TV) – The North Dakota House will decide this week whether to raise tobacco taxes. The state has not done so since 1993.
Republican Rep. Jon Nelson of Rugby is pushing a bill that would raise state cigarette tax from 44 cents to $1.52 a pack. Taxes on snuff would go from 60 cents to $2.72.
Nelson says the bill could save lives.
The House Finance and Taxation Committee voted 12 to 2 to give the bill a do-not-pass recommendation. The full House will decide later this week.
http://www.wday.com/news/north-dakota/3674367-nd-house-vote-raising-tobacco-tax-week

Opinion: Shame on North Dakota tobacco product sellers

By Howard Oppegard from Valley City, N.D.

Shame on retailers who oppose a tax increase on tobacco products in North Dakota (Forum story, Feb. 4).
Since greed may be their motivation, they should be reminded cancer victims do not buy anything. My sister, a smoker, died from lung cancer one month after her 50th birthday.
http://www.inforum.com/letters/3674263-letter-shame-north-dakota-tobacco-product-sellers

What to watch in North Dakota's Legislature: Common Core, tobacco taxes, surge funding

By JAMES MacPHERSON  Associated Press

BISMARCK, North Dakota — The North Dakota Legislature will remain busy this week introducing and finishing voting on bills in their respective chambers, including those that address education standards, tobacco taxes and surge funding.

COMMON CORE

North Dakota’s House is slated to vote this week whether to repeal new state English and math standards that outline what students should know and when. The House Education Committee voted 9-4 last week to give the bill a do-not-pass recommendation.

Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, is sponsoring the legislation to repeal Common Core education standards for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Kasper and other critics believe the standards represent a federal takeover of education.

Backers contend the standards provide students with the critical thinking and writing skills needed for college and the workforce.

North Dakota adopted the standards in 2011 and began to fully implement them during the current school year. Assessments based on the new standards will start for all students this spring.

North Dakota School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said more than 130 educators from around the state were involved in helping develop the Common Core standards.

TOBACCO TAXES

North Dakota hasn’t raised it tax on tobacco since 1993 and the streak appears to have no immediate end in sight.

Rep. Jon Nelson, R-Rugby, is pushing the bill that would raise the state’s cigarette tax from 44 cents to $1.54 a pack, equal to the national average. Tax on a can of snuff would jump from 60 cents to $2.72.

Nelson believes the measure will save lives by deterring young people from taking up the habit.

Retailers have successfully fought off several attempts to raise the state’s tobacco tax in the past two decades, arguing that it punishes retailers and unfairly targets low-income North Dakotans.

The House Finance and Taxation Committee voted 12-2 to give the bill a do-not-pass recommendation. The full House will decide whether to reject the measure on smokes, chew and chewing tobacco.

North Dakota ranks 46th among states in the amount of tax smokers pay. New York charges the most state excise tax in the nation at $4.35. A $1.54-per-pack tax would put North Dakota more in line with neighboring states

SURGE FUNDING

North Dakota’s Senate already has approved $1.1 billion in special funding so that infrastructure projects can begin by this summer. The measure is slated to go before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

The “surge funding” bill that would fast-track funding to cities, school districts and communities impacted by North Dakota’s exploding growth.

House budget writers have asked cities, counties and townships to provide a detailed listing of “shovel ready” projects and the estimated cost of each project that would be completed this year.

HEITKAMP BILL

A bill that would prohibit the governor from appointing a successor to a vacant North Dakota congressional seat is slated to be heard by the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee this week.

Republican Rep. Roscoe Streyle, a Minot banker, introduced the bill, which is response to a rumored gubernatorial bid next year by popular freshman Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

She’s been mum on the subject.

Heitkamp won’t be up for re-election in the Senate until 2018. Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple hasn’t said whether he plans to seek another term as governor.

Heitkamp is the only Democrat holding a statewide office in North Dakota. The former state auditor and attorney general unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2000.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/4d58129cf6c1441ba45a72e5de9185da/ND–In-the-Legislature

Letter: Shame on North Dakota tobacco product sellers

By Howard Oppegard from Valley City, N.D.

Shame on retailers who oppose a tax increase on tobacco products in North Dakota (Forum story, Feb. 4).
Since greed may be their motivation they should be reminded cancer victims do not buy anything. My sister, a smoker, died from lung cancer one month after her 50th birthday.
http://www.inforum.com/letters/3674263-letter-shame-north-dakota-tobacco-product-sellers

Bismarck Tribune: Legislators need to get tobacco bill right

Bismarck Tribune Editorial Board:

On the surface, a bill to raise tobacco taxes would seem a no-brainer to many North Dakotans.

The state ranks 46th nationally in tobacco taxes at 44 cents per pack, ahead of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Virginia.

Supporters of a higher tax argue it will deter young people from picking up the habit, nudge smokers to quit and provide more money to the state.

House Bill 1421 would raise the state’s cigarette tax to $1.54 per pack and increase the excise tax on other tobacco products from 28 percent of the wholesale purchase price to 43.5 percent.

There have been efforts to raise tobacco taxes since 1993, with the latest failed attempt in 2013. A hearing this week on the bill pitted health care officials against business interests.

Mike Rud, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association, suggested the state shouldn’t tamper with an economy that remains robust. He said his association opposes the bill, and that increasing the tax would make it more difficult for retailers along the Montana and South Dakota borders, states where the taxes would be lower.

However, Dr. Eric Johnson, of Grand Forks, noted the state gets a flunking grade from the American Lung Association when it comes to tobacco taxes.

Rep. Jon Nelson, R-Rugby, said the bill is intended to stop young preople from smoking, while generating an estimated $103.5 million in new revenue in the 2015-17 biennium.

Supporters of the bill expect to have it both ways. They predict the higher taxes will prevent approximately 7,500 people younger than 18 from smoking and prompt an estimated 8,000 adult smokers to quit. They also see a possible $300 million in savings in future health care expenditures. It’s likely fewer smokers will result in fewer health problems and reduce the impact on health care. Plus supporters expect the $103.5 million in new revenue.

Fewer smokers is a laudable goal — there’s no doubt that tobacco poses a health risk and increases medical costs for everyone. The bill’s health benefits should be the focus of legislative action — we shouldn’t be looking at the dollar signs.

Smoking remains legal, though where smoking can occur has been limited. Raising taxes for health reasons has merit, but raising them to punish people doesn’t.

Under the bill, 60 percent of new revenue would go toward health-related programs in the state’s Community Health Trust Fund. The rest would go to local communities for health-related programs.

Designating the money for health programs shouldn’t translate into funding more anti-smoking campaigns that already are well-financed. There are more deserving programs than can be counted. The Legislature needs to ensure the money goes to the right programs.

North Dakota needs to do everything it can to prevent more people from smoking and to encourage smokers to quit. Lawmakers need to take a close look at HB1421 to be sure it achieves those goals. It shouldn’t be done to create a new revenue stream.

Done correctly, HB1421 should be approved. Improving the health of the state’s residents should be the goal of all North Dakotans.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/opinion/editorial/legislators-need-to-get-tobacco-bill-right/article_629fb919-ead5-52b0-b62b-0a5143d7e6a9.html