Colorado voters have an opportunity to positively affect the health of Colorado’s kids by voting “yes” on Amendment 72, which would increase taxes on cigarettes in order to raise money for critical unmet health needs. One of the most effective ways to discourage young people from starting to smoke is to increase the price of tobacco products. This tax will decrease smoking rates as well as fully fund tobacco education and cessation programs.
According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, more than 10 percent of children in Colorado smoke, totaling more than 7 million packs of cigarettes each year. In our region, 13 percent of high schoolers smoke. Increasing the tobacco tax is a proven way to deter kids from starting to smoke.
Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in Colorado; killing more than 5,000 Coloradans and costing taxpayers $1.9 billion in tobacco-related health care costs. Colorado has fallen behind most states in efforts to fight smoking. In 2015, cigarette sales increased for the first time in over a decade. Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) found that tax increases lose their effectiveness after roughly seven years. The last time Colorado increased the tobacco tax was in 2004. It’s time to do more to fight smoking and support the health needs of our communities.
The current tax on a pack of cigarettes in Colorado is 84 cents. According to CDPHE, Colorado has one of the lowest smoking rates in the nation. Nearly every state that has passed cigarette tax increases has correspondingly lower smoking rates, especially among kids, and increased funding for important health programs. The proposed $1.75 per pack increase will prevent more than 34,000 kids from becoming smokers and further reduce youth smoking by an estimated 20 percent to 30 percent, saving over 20,000 lives and $1.4 billion in future health care costs.
Amendment 72 has the potential to significantly decrease the number of youth who smoke, as well as to decrease the number of children who are exposed to the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke contributes to frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome. This is one of the most important steps we can take in Colorado to improve health and fight the number one cause of preventable death in our state.
Over 80 organizations, including Children’s Hospital Colorado, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association, support Amendment 72 because it will reduce smoking rates and save lives.
The tax revenue will benefit Colorado communities by directly funding health care, smoking cessation programs, and medical research to reduce the harm caused by smoking. The new tax revenue will be a boon rather than a burden that the tobacco industry has placed on households and the state budget from increased Medicaid costs due to smoking-related illnesses.
Don’t be fooled by the tobacco industry’s high-priced campaign, vote “yes” on Amendment 72.
Dr. Cecile Fraley is a board certified pediatrician who also serves as the CEO of Pediatric Partners of the Southwest and provides medical services to adolescents at the Robert E. Denier Youth Detention Center. Reach her at (970) 375-0100.
Social engineering has raised its ugly head again in Colorado. First, let me explore the meaning of social engineering. It is defined as “a discipline in social science that refers to efforts to influence particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale.” In the case of Amendment 72, that would increase the state tax on a pack of cigarettes from 84 cents to $2.59 and other tobacco products from 40 percent to 62 percent, it is simply an effort by a group of liberal-progressives to coerce smokers to stop smoking using a 208 percent increase per pack tax on cigarettes.
While I would concede smoking is bad for people’s health and it would be good to stop, using taxes to try force people to stop makes about much as sense as New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to curb obesity by banning “Big Gulps” (which was ultimately declared unconstitutional.) More extreme examples of social engineering were China’s cultural revolution and the attempt to de-urbanize Cambodia.
This attempt to over-tax a legal substance through a socially engineered tax could become the proverbial “slippery slope.” If the people who came up with Amendment 72 get away with this attempt to control individual behavior (i.e. freedom), what will be the next socially abhorrent behavior they will go after using this tax weapon? Just like New York, obesity is a problem, so why not an additional tax on soft drinks? So is alcoholism, so why not a 200 percent tax increase on alcohol products? Or gun control through high taxes on guns and ammunition? On and on!
There are at least two other problems with this tax. Most important is who will be adversely affected by the tax. As outlined in the 2016 State Ballot Information Booklet known as the “Blue Book,” recent studies have shown that people with lower incomes are more likely to use tobacco products and less able to afford a tax increase. I’m sure the liberal-progressives who proffered this amendment will say, “Well, they should just quit.” Obviously, they have little experience with the difficulty in stopping smoking, especially when someone is trying to force you to stop!
Finally, an unintended consequence of this socially engineered tax increase would be an increase in the black market for tobacco products. Business principles and economics show that whenever the difference between cost of a product and the price at which it is sold increases, the more income you can realize. Whenever government artificially raises the price of a product the more the temptation for people to skirt the government and make some money. Thus an increase in criminal activity can be expected among both criminals and ordinary citizens. Along our southern coasts they don’t call them “cigarette boats” for no reason.
In my opinion Amendment 72, which would increase cigarette and tobacco taxes, is not good for Colorado! Please vote “no” on Amendment 72.
Charles “Skip” Page is a retired Air Force major who has done private consulting and worked for the city of Durango and Fort Lewis College. He moved to La Plata County in 1998. Reach him at spage@frontier.net
