The Post's View: Maryland’s cigarette tax is saving lives

By Editorial Board, The Washington Post AMID AN electoral backlash against high taxes in Maryland, anti-smoking advocates have abandoned a campaign to raise the state-imposed levy on cigarettes. Politically, that makes perfect sense. As public-health policy, it is foolish. A new study by Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows that the state’s drop […]

Tobacco tax: Move for $2 per pack gains momentum in CA

By Dr. Nicholas Leeper | Special to the Mercury News The changing of the New Year brings about a fresh start. If you are one of the estimated 46.6 million Americans who smoke cigarettes, quitting the habit is likely being considered for a New Year’s resolution. Polls have shown that a vast majority of smokers […]

Higher tobacco taxes save lives

By: Vincent DeMarco, Baltimore A recent op-ed criticizing Maryland’s tobacco tax increases ignores the most important consequence of these measures: a dramatic decrease in tobacco use by teens that has saved thousands of young people from preventable tobacco-related deaths and serious illnesses (“Md. cigarette taxes have unintended consequences,” Dec. 18). According to data compiled by […]

Cigarette smoking costs weigh heavily on the healthcare system

Reuters via Fox News Of every $10 spent on healthcare in the U.S., almost 90 cents is due to smoking, a new analysis says. Using recent health and medical spending surveys, researchers calculated that 8.7 percent of all healthcare spending, or $170 billion a year, is for illness caused by tobacco smoke, and public programs […]

Smoking Rates Continue to Decline

MMWR – MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT The CDC recently updated its statistics about current cigarette smoking among adults. In its MMWR article of November 28, 2014, it tracked changes in smoking between 2005 and 2013. In general, the trends of previous years continued. Here are some of the results: The proportion of U.S. adults who smoke […]