Cigarettes and Tobacco News

May 25, 2006 -- SIX and a half bucks for a pack of smokes? That would be paying top dollar for a dangerous addiction.

Of course, that would be the point of a proposed additional $2.60 state tax on a pack of cigarettes. Proponents and the 1.1 million Californians who signed the petition to put the tax on the November ballot say they hope the stiff tax would reduce the number of smokers.

They say they think the cost would discourage teen smokers in particular.

Further, the tax would raise $2.1 billion a year for hospital emergency services; nurses' training; community clinics; heart, asthma and disease prevention programs; and the Healthy Kids insurance program. Smoking-prevention programs and tobacco-related disease treatment also would benefit.

It would mean fewer smokers and more money for health services. With a decreasing number of smokers, there would also be a reduction in the need for services treating tobacco-related diseases. How could we go wrong?

Supporters of Prohibition had a similar rationale. While this measure would not outlaw cigarette smoking as Prohibition outlawed alcohol, it could result in one of the unintended developments of that era — a black market. There already is a black market in cigarettes, but with a pack costing $6.50, that market would likely expand.

And black markets mean crime. Criminals could move in and violent conflicts about control of the lucrative market would probably follow.

The impulse of the supporters of the stiff cigarette tax is admirable. But they need to think through their plan more thoroughly. We wouldn't want to see the creation of a cigarette trade on par with the drug trade.