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Letter: Raise state cigarette tax, protect ND kids

By Nicholas Thies, Fargo

I have a friend who started smoking in ninth grade, roughly seven years ago, and he is still addicted to this day. The tobacco companies are aware of these trends and spend millions of dollars on new products and deceptive marketing with the goal of turning children into lifelong customers, as is the case with my friend. I have talked with him, and he has told me how raising the tobacco tax would greatly encourage him to quit smoking.

One of the best ways to prevent kids from ever starting the deadly addiction is to increase the price of tobacco products so they can’t afford to purchase them. States have been successfully using this tactic over the past decade by increasing local tobacco taxes. It can also help detract adult smokers from continuing the habit. Many of my aunts and uncles have been smoking for decades, and I always wished for something that would make them quit.

I’m suggesting we raise North Dakota’s cigarette tax significantly. Of the surrounding states, North Dakota’s tobacco tax is incredibly cheaper.

This one simple act can keep nearly 7,900 North Dakota kids from ever becoming adult smokers. And, more importantly, it means that more than 4,700 caused deaths would be prevented.

North Dakota, this is a win-win idea. You can decrease long-term health care costs and protect our children. I urge you to write your legislator and ask them to consider increasing North Dakota’s tax on all tobacco products.

It’s the right choice for our kids.

http://www.inforum.com/content/letter-raise-state-cigarette-tax-protect-nd%E2%80%88kids

Fewer Fargo High School students smoking, binge drinking

By Helmut Schmidt | Fargo Forum
FARGO – The percentage of Fargo High School students taking up cigarette smoking is dropping fast, and fewer students are binge drinking.

But other risks are coming to the fore, including what appears to be higher rates of depression and thoughts of suicide. Students also report a high rate of texting, emailing and talking on cellphones as they drive.

One out of five Fargo high school students polled were bullied electronically, while nearly one in 10 students said they were physically hurt by someone they were dating.

Statistics from the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey paint a stark picture of the challenges faced by youths today, said Ron Schneider, a counselor at Fargo’s Woodrow Wilson High School.

Presenting the survey results and trend data to the School Board Tuesday, Schneider said it’s vital for family, teachers and school officials to make connections with young people.

“The more connections, the more relationships, the less likely they get involved with negative behavior,” Schneider said.

Among the findings:

  • Depression is a problem that’s either on the rise, or it has become more acceptable to talk about, Schneider said. “My guess is it’s a little of both,” he said. In 2013, 26.9 percent of Fargo students polled in grades 9-12 felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks straight, up from 22.7 percent in 2009, the survey showed.
  • Of those surveyed, 16.8 percent had seriously considered suicide in the previous year, 12.4 percent had made a plan about how they would attempt suicide and 11.6 percent had attempted suicide one or more times in that year.
  • About two out of three young drivers are so hooked on their cellphones they can’t put them down when driving. Among Fargo students surveyed, 57.3 percent said they had texted or emailed while driving in 2013. Meanwhile, 67 percent of Fargo students said they had talked on a cellphone while driving in 2013.
  • In Fargo, 8.6 percent of students surveyed in 2013 reported being hurt by someone they dated, with that rising to 9.7 percent statewide.
  • Also, 10.1 percent of Fargo high school students in 2013 said they had been physically forced to have sexual intercourse, compared with 7.7 percent of those polled statewide.
  • About 20.1 percent of Fargo students said they had been electronically bullied, compared with 17.1 percent statewide.
  • Nearly a third of Fargo students, 28.7 percent, said they had an alcoholic drink in the last 30 days. It was 35.3 percent statewide.

Drug use

Schneider said it appears that the use of other chemicals has stabilized.

  • In 2013, 19.6 percent of Fargo students had tried marijuana in the last 30 days, compared with 15.9 percent statewide.
  • About 10.7 percent of Fargo students said they had sniffed glue, huffed from aerosol cans, or inhaled paints or spray to get high, while 5.6 percent said they had used methamphetamines.
  • In 2013, 20.5 percent of Fargo students said they had illegally used prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, codeine, Adderall, Ritalin or Xanax.
  • About 13.5 percent of Fargo high school students used over-the-counter drugs to get high in 2013, while 10.8 percent said they had used synthetic drugs such as K2, Spice or bath salts.
  • About 12.5 percent of students polled in 2013 said they had attended school drunk or high in the last 30 days.

Some positives

  • Regular smokers, Fargo teens who had smoked a cigarette on 20 of the last 30 days before the 2013 poll, dropped significantly, from 11.1 percent in 2009 to 3.9 percent in 2013.
  • About 21 percent of Fargo students reported smoking cigarettes, cigars or using chewing tobacco, snuff or dip in the last 30 days in the 2013 poll.
  • Binge drinking declined, as 17.7 percent of Fargo students in 2013 said they had five or more drinks in a couple of hours, compared with 23.9 percent in 2009. Statewide, 21.9 percent reported binge drinking in 2013, compared with 30.7 percent in 2009.

Sexually active

Many young people reported that they were sexually active. Of the students surveyed in 2013:

  • 39.7 percent of Fargo high school students reported that they had sexual intercourse, compared with 44.9 percent statewide.
  • 12.4 percent of Fargo students said they had sex with four or more partners during their lives.
  • 51.7 percent of Fargo students said they had used a condom during their last sexual experience, compared with 56.3 percent statewide.

http://www.inforum.com/content/fewer-fargo-high-school-students-smoking-binge-drinking

Raise tobacco tax to discourage kids

By KATHLEEN DONAHUE Bismarck

Almost all tobacco users became addicted before age 26. Thousands of kids try their first cigarette every day.

In recent years, declines in youth smoking rates have stalled and the use of other tobacco products by youth has actually increased.

The tobacco companies are aware of these trends and spend millions of dollars on new products and deceptive marketing with the goal of turning children into lifelong customers.

Advertising influenced my cousin to start smoking at an early age. Years later, his tobacco use cost him his life. I want to make sure no family experiences such a loss.

One of the best ways to prevent kids from ever starting the deadly addiction is to increase the price of tobacco products so they can’t afford to purchase them. States have been successfully using this tactic over the past decade by increasing local tobacco taxes.

I’m suggesting we raise North Dakota’s cigarette tax significantly. This one simple act can keep nearly 7,900 North Dakota kids from ever becoming adult smokers. And more importantly, it means that more than 4,700 tobacco-caused deaths like my cousin’s untimely passing would be prevented.

North Dakota, this is a win-win idea. You can decrease long-term health care costs and protect our children. I urge you to write your legislators and ask them to consider increasing North Dakota’s tax on all tobacco products. It’s the right choice for our kids.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/opinion/mailbag/raise-tobacco-tax-to-discourage-kids/article_94347622-4046-11e4-a807-af727e9b9e46.html

Concordia campus goes fully tobacco-free

By Grace Lyden | Forum News Service
MOORHEAD – Following the lead of college campuses around the country, Concordia College at Moorhead is now fully tobacco-free.
As of Aug. 18, the college prohibits the use, sale or distribution of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookahs, electronic cigarettes and any other smoking products, as well as smokeless tobacco products, such as chew and snus, on campus grounds.
“We felt that what we wanted to do was be as comprehensive in this as possible,” said Sue Oatey, Concordia’s vice president of student affairs.
According to a survey done by Concordia’s Student Government Association in 2013, 88 percent of Concordia students did not use tobacco products on campus and 70 percent supported a tobacco-free policy.
Those statistics make it surprising that the move didn’t happen sooner, as it did at other colleges in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
Minnesota State University Moorhead went tobacco-free on Jan. 1, 2008. Two years later, North Dakota State University’s smoking ban went into effect March 1, 2010.
And in the past five years, the number of smoke-free campuses nationwide has soared.
Just 365 campuses were smoke-free in October 2009, compared to 1,372 campuses in July 2014, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, a group that tracks those numbers.
Alyssa Coop, president of Concordia’s student government and a senior at the college, said her understanding was that a smoking ban had been often discussed but also often tabled.
“It’s kind of come and gone,” she said. “Every once in a while, the administration will make headway on it, but it seems to take a while to get through the red tape.”
That’s why the SGA wasn’t confident when they started working with Oatey and others on this proposal two years ago.
“We really didn’t have high hopes for it,” Coop said. “We didn’t know if it was going to be time for it or not.”
Now that it is in place, though, Concordia’s ban is one of the nation’s most comprehensive because it prohibits smoking products, smokeless products and also e-cigarettes.
E-cig debate
E-cigarettes have been a point of debate on numerous college campuses.
They’re marketed as a better option for public use due to reduced secondhand smoke effects, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization have questioned those claims and called for stronger regulation.
Just 176 of this year’s 1,372 smoke-free campuses also prohibit e-cigarettes, according to the ANRF data, and three of those are now in Fargo-Moorhead.
MSUM released a statement March 13 that e-cigarettes would be added to its tobacco policy, citing the lack of FDA regulation and also a 2014 U.S. Surgeon General report that said e-cigarettes constitute tobacco use.
NDSU also recently added e-cigarettes to its policy to be in compliance with state law, said Janna Stoskopf, NDSU dean of student life.
North Dakota is one of two states that specifically prohibit using e-cigarettes in 100 percent smoke-free venues, according to the ANRF July report. The other is New Jersey.
NDSU differs slightly from Concordia and MSUM because while the campus is smoke-free, smokeless tobacco is allowed.
Stoskopf said students who spearheaded the ban were intentional about that choice.
“They thought they would have the best possible success based on the notion of secondhand smoke and the impact of that on others,” she said.
Slightly more than two-thirds of smoke-free college campuses – 938 of the 1,372 – are also tobacco-free, according to the ANRF.
There have not been efforts to change that aspect of NDSU policy, Stoskopf said.
http://www.inforum.com/content/concordia-campus-goes-fully-tobacco-free

World Health Organization: Public Health Rules Needed to Curb E-Cigarette Risks

by Katie Weatherford, Center for Effective Government

Contrary to industry advertising, a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other electronic nicotine delivery systems pose significant public health hazards because of toxins emitted from the devices. The agency recommends that countries adopt e-cigarette rules to prevent misleading marketing of the products and to educate the public about the potential health risks involved.

E-Cigarettes Emit Dangerous Toxins

E-cigarettes contain a battery that heats a nicotine fluid inside the device until it produces a mist-like aerosol that the user can inhale. According to the WHO report, the aerosol contains “nicotine and a number of toxicants” that pose health hazards to users and non-users, especially pregnant women and children, contrary to claims that these devices release nothing more than water vapor. Nicotine use is linked to long-term adverse effects on brain development. Moreover, the aerosol typically contains “some carcinogenic compounds,” including formaldehyde.

Although the report finds that adult smokers who completely switch from regular cigarettes to e-cigarettes will be exposed to lower levels of toxins, WHO warns that the “amount of risk reduction . . . is presently unknown.” The report also notes uncertainty about whether second-hand exposure risks from e-cigarettes are lower than regular cigarettes.

Marketing Contains Unsubstantiated Claims, Targets Children

The WHO report also takes misleading marketing to task, noting the frequent use of unsubstantiated claims about e-cigarettes in product ads. According to the report, there is insufficient evidence that using e-cigarettes will help people quit smoking, yet ads commonly market e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation device. Other marketing tactics may even encourage more frequent smoking.

For example, many ads promote using e-cigarettes in places where regular smoking is banned. WHO cautions that this could interfere with the intent of smoke-free policies, which “are designed not only to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, but also to provide incentives to quit smoking and to denormalize smoking . . . .”

Moreover, e-cigarette marketing has “the potential to glamorize smoking,” which may encourage nonsmokers and children to start using e-cigarettes. The endless variety of designs and flavor options can also appeal to adolescents.

WHO Recommends Developing Public Safeguards

The WHO report says, “Regulation of [e-cigarettes] is a necessary precondition for establishing a scientific basis on which to judge the effects of their use, and for ensuring that adequate research is conducted, that the public has current, reliable information as to the potential risks and benefits of [e-cigarettes], and that the health of the public is protected.”

The report will be a topic of discussion this October at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The Convention is an international effort to address global tobacco use. The report calls on the 179 countries that are parties to the Convention to adopt new standards to protect the public from the hazards associated with e-cigarettes. Such safeguards would:

  • Prohibit claims that these products can help people quit smoking until manufacturers provide sufficient scientific evidence to support the claim and gain regulatory approval

  • Ban indoor use of e-cigarettes unless it is proven there are no health effects from second-hand exposure

  • Restrict marketing by requiring that all ads, promotions, or sponsorships provide warnings, encourage people to quit smoking, in no way promote use by nonsmokers or adolescents, contain no images, words, etc. associated with a tobacco product, and more

  • Require that manufacturers design products to reduce exposure to toxins, make information about contents and exposure levels available to users, register products with a governmental body, and report design and emissions information to a governmental body

  • Prohibit sales to people under the age of 18 and ban fruit, candy-like, and alcohol-drink flavors unless and until it is proven that these flavors do not appeal to minors

To ensure strong public health protections, the global community must adopt WHO’s recommendations so that people understand the risks associated with e-cigarettes and adults can make informed choices about whether or not to use them.

Protecting Public Health in the U.S.

Although the U.S. is a signatory to the Convention, it has not yet ratified the tobacco control treaty. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking some steps similar to WHO’s recommendations.

FDA proposed a rule in April that would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18. The rule would also require e-cigarette manufacturers to register with the agency and report the manufacturing process and ingredients used in their products. Moreover, companies would be required to place health-warning labels on e-cigarettes.

However, some tobacco control advocates believe the proposal does not go far enough and are urging FDA to prohibit manufacturers from marketing candy-flavored options that attract children. The Center for Effective Government and other health and safety groups also heavily criticized the FDA’s decision to discount the benefits of the proposed rule by 70 percent, which the agency claims is necessary to account for the “lost pleasure” from reducing tobacco use.

FDA is currently reviewing public comments and considering any changes to its draft rule. We hope the agency will correct its flawed benefit calculation and move forward with strong safeguards without delay. The U.S. should also ratify the treaty and communicate its support for global efforts to combat the tobacco use epidemic.

http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/13198

Letter to the Editor: Stop glamorizing the role of tobacco in baseball

Chris Hansen, Washington | The Washington Post

Just weeks after the early death of beloved baseball star Tony Gwynn from cancer likely caused by chewing tobacco, and just days after World Series-winning pitcher Curt Schilling told the world he attributes his cancer to years of chewing tobacco, The Post irresponsibly leads an article about the Washington Nationals with the portrayal of chewing tobacco use as a rally-inducing, lucky superstition [“Nationals’ luck runs out against Phillies thanks to stellar performance by Burnett,” Sports, Aug. 27].

To all the young baseball fans who look to The Post each morning to see if their heroes won last night: Tobacco causes those heroes to suffer nicotine addiction, disease and death. Stephen Strasburg recently stated publicly that he is trying to quit using chewing tobacco but that it is very hard to quit. It is time for the team owners and the players association to eliminate tobacco from baseball, and it is time for the media to stop characterizing tobacco as a quaint part of baseball culture.

Instead of inducing winning rallies, tobacco in baseball induces life-shortening defeats — and that is the only coverage it deserves on the sports page of The Post.

The writer is president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stop-glamorizing-the-role-of-tobacco-in-baseball/2014/08/31/cdd004dc-2e08-11e4-be9e-60cc44c01e7f_story.html

St. Paul OKs ordinance targeting sale of cheap cigars

Article by: PAUL WALSH and KEVIN DUCHSCHERE , Star Tribune staff writers

Over the objections of retailers, St. Paul has approved an ordinance that targets the sale of inexpensive cigars that appeal to young smokers.

The ordinance, passed unanimously Wednesday by the City Council, sets a minimum price of $2.10 each for single cigars, whether sold individually or in packs up to four; for example, a three-pack would have to sell for at least $6.30.

Packs of five or more cigars would not be subject to price regulation.

Currently, cigars can be bought for far less — sometimes for as little as three for $1 and in flavors that make them particularly appealing to young people.

In June, Brooklyn Center became the first municipality in the state to pass such an ordinance. The city has seen a sharp decline in cigar sales since the ordinance took effect.

“This issue is about the underlying problem of the tobacco companies’ intentional marketing to youth and communities of color,” Council Member Dai Thao said during last week’s hearing on the ordinance, which he sponsored.

Jack McNaney, a freshman at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul and a member of the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition, said, “It’s not right that you can buy three cigarillos for less than the price of a bottle of Mountain Dew.”

Alicia Leizinger, a coalition program and policy specialist, said Thursday that “St. Paul has taken a strong stand against the tobacco industry’s relentless efforts to addict young people to their deadly products. By raising the price of cheap cigars, they took an important step in breaking the cycle of addiction for the next generation.”

A state Health Department survey revealed that cigars rival cigarettes in popularity among underage smokers.

Steve Rush, director of government relations for Holiday convenience stores, countered last week that the ordinance “will cause us to remove about 70 categories of cigar products” from its 10 stores in the city. “The loss of these sales can be quite serious,” Rush added.

Tom Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, added that the ordinance will punish retailers in St. Paul, where stores have a “virtually perfect compliance” record of not selling tobacco products to minors.

“Consumers who are of legal age to buy cigars will simply go elsewhere,” Rush said. “This is simply harming the honest, ethical St. Paul retailers who are enforcing the law.”

St. Paul retailers have about 30 days to change the prices on cigars covered by the ordinance.

In 2009, a unanimous City Council vote outlawed candy cigarettes and cartoon character lighters. The council cited a study showing that these products encouraged youngsters to take up smoking tobacco.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/273072601.html

WHO urges stiff regulatory curbs on e-cigarettes

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY, Geneva
(Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) stepped up its war on “Big Tobacco” on Tuesday, calling for stiff regulation of electronic cigarettes as well as bans on indoor use, advertising and sales to minors.

In a long-awaited report that will be debated by member states at a meeting in October in Moscow, the United Nations health agency also voiced concern at the concentration of the $3 billion market in the hands of transnational tobacco companies.

The WHO launched a public health campaign against tobacco a decade ago, clinching the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Since entering into force in 2005, it has been ratified by 179 states but the United States has not joined it.

The treaty recommends price and tax measures to curb demand as well as bans on tobacco advertising and illicit trade in tobacco products. Prior to Tuesday’s report the WHO had indicated it would favor applying similar restrictions to all nicotine-containing products including smokeless ones.

In the report, the WHO said there are 466 brands of e-cigarettes and the industry represents “an evolving frontier filled with promise and threat for tobacco control”.

It urged a range of regulatory options, including banning e-cigarette makers from making health claims such as that they help people quit smoking, until they provide convincing supporting scientific evidence.

Smokers should use a combination of already-approved treatments for kicking the habit, it said.

While evidence indicates that they are likely to be less toxic than conventional cigarettes, the use of e-cigarettes poses a threat to adolescents and the fetuses of pregnant women using them, it said.

“NOT MERELY WATER VAPOR”

E-cigarettes also increase the exposure of bystanders and non-smokers to nicotine and other toxicants, it said regarding Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems that it calls ENDS.

“In summary, existing evidence shows that ENDS aerosol is not merely ‘water vapor’ as is often claimed in the marketing for these products,” the WHO said in the 13-page report.

E-cigarettes should be regulated to “minimize content and emissions of toxicants”, and those solutions with fruit, candy-like and alcohol-drinks flavors should be banned until proven they are not attractive to children and adolescents, it said.

Adolescents are increasingly experimenting with e-cigarettes, with their use in this age group doubling between 2008 and 2012, it said.

Vending machines should be removed in almost all locations, it added.

Scientists are divided on the risks and potential benefits of e-cigarettes, which are widely considered to be a lot less harmful than conventional cigarettes.

One group of researchers warned the WHO in May not to classify them as tobacco products, arguing that doing so would jeopardize an opportunity to slash disease and deaths caused by smoking.

Opposing experts argued a month later that the WHO should hold firm to its plan for strict regulations.

Major tobacco companies including Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L), Altria Group (MO.N), Philip Morris International (PM.N) and British American Tobacco (BATS.L) are increasingly launching their own e-cigarette brands as sales of conventional products stall in Western markets.

A Wells Fargo analyst report in July projected that U.S. sales of e-cigarettes would outpace conventional ones by 2020.

Uptake of electronic cigarettes, which use battery-powered cartridges to produce a nicotine-laced inhalable vapor, has rocketed in the last two years and analysts estimate the industry had worldwide sales of some $3 billion in 2013.

But the devices are controversial. Because they are so new there is a lack of long-term scientific evidence to support their safety and some fear they could be “gateway” products to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking.

The American Heart Association said in a report on Monday that it considered e-cigarettes that contain nicotine to be tobacco products and therefore supports their regulation under existing laws on the use and marketing of tobacco products.

“Although the levels of toxic constituents in e-cigarette aerosol are much lower than those in cigarette smoke, there is still some level of passive exposure,” the AHA said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Ben Hirschler and Martinne Geller in London, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-health-who-ecigarettes-idUSKBN0GQ0PF20140826

CDC: E-cigs may be tempting non-smoking youths to smoke

By Reuters Media

CHICAGO – Electronic cigarettes may be more tempting to non-smoking youths than conventional cigarettes, and once young people have tried e-cigarettes they are more inclined to give regular cigarettes a try, U.S. researchers said on Monday. A report, released by a team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lends evidence to the argument that electronic cigarettes encourage youth smoking.

The study, based on nationally representative youth surveys, found that more than a quarter-million adolescents and teens who had never smoked used an electronic cigarette in 2013, a threefold increase from 2011.

Youths who had tried e-cigarettes were nearly twice as likely to say they would try a conventional cigarette in the next year compared with those who had never tried an e-cigarette, according to the study in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

E-cigarettes are slim, reusable, metal-tube devices containing nicotine-laced liquids that come in exotic flavors. When users puff, the nicotine is heated and released as a vapor containing no tar, unlike conventional cigarette smoke.

Health experts have raised concerns that the burgeoning $2 billion e-cigarette industry, which has been virtually unregulated, would reverse gains in the decades-long effort to curb youth smoking in the United States. Just 15.7 percent of U.S. teenagers reported smoking in 2013, the lowest rate on record.

In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed rules that would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18 but would not restrict flavored products, online sales or advertising, which public health advocates say attract children.

Earlier this month, attorneys general from 29 states urged the FDA to strengthen those rules to better protect young people from nicotine addiction.

“We are very concerned about nicotine use among our youth, regardless of whether it comes from conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes or other tobacco products,” Dr. Tim McAfee, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement.

“Not only is nicotine highly addictive, it can harm adolescent brain development.”

In the CDC study, researchers analyzed data from the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Youth Tobacco Surveys of students in grades 6-12. They found that more than 263,000 who had never smoked a conventional cigarette used e-cigarettes in 2013, up from 79,000 in 2011.

Among non-smoking youth who had tried electronic cigarettes, 43.9 percent said they intended to smoke conventional cigarettes within the next year, compared with 21.5 percent of those who had never used e-cigarettes.

Lorillard Inc leads the U.S. e-cigarette market, while Reynolds American Inc and Altria Group Inc are rolling out their own brands nationwide this summer. A Wells Fargo analyst report in July projected that U.S. sales of e-cigarettes would outpace conventional ones by 2020.

http://www.inforum.com/content/cdc-e-cigs-may-be-tempting-non-smoking-youths-smoke

Letter: Tobacco taxes should be raised

By Jay Taylor from Durbin, N.D.

Hey! I have a great idea! Let’s raise a tax on something,” said no North Dakota legislator ever.

Wow! Raising a tax on anything, with North Dakota being so flush from oil money, just doesn’t make any sense at all.

And yet, taxes (or fees if you want a more politically correct term) do continue to inch up here and there.

During the 2013 legislative session, North Dakota lawmakers passed a bill that increased fees for many hunting and fishing licenses.

A tax is generally imposed to gain funds to pay for specific services or products: “It is a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers’ income and business profits or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions.”

As said, to raise a tax in North Dakota today just doesn’t seem to make any sense, unless it’s a tax to protect the health of our residents, prevent disease and thwart kids from starting a path of extremely unhealthy behavior.

OK, I’ve beat around the bush long enough. I have read a lot about the idea of increasing the tobacco tax in North Dakota, and I am totally in favor of such an action. Here’s why:

The tobacco tax in North Dakota is one of the lowest in the nation (we are 46th at 44 cents per pack of 20 cigarettes), the lower-than-us states include: Missouri at 17 cents; Louisiana at 36 cents; Georgia at 37 cents and Alabama at 42 cents.

Our tobacco tax hasn’t increased since 1993.

The effects of North Dakotans’ tobacco use also affects the wallets of those who don’t use tobacco. North Dakota’s annual health care costs directly caused by smoking are $326 million. The portion covered by state Medicaid is $47 million.

But the most important reason is that a higher tobacco tax encourages people to quit and discourages younger folks from starting. According to the Tobacco Free Kids organization, “tobacco tax increases are one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking and other tobacco use, especially among kids. Every 10 percent increase in cigarette prices reduces youth smoking by about seven percent and total cigarette consumption by about four percent.”

For all the work being done by public health and health advocacy organizations, raising the tobacco tax is win-win.

I think it’s about time the North Dakota legislators started having a serious talk about this rather serious idea.

http://www.westfargopioneer.com/content/letter-tobacco-taxes-should-be-raised