The Price of Smoking: Does Higher Cigarette Tax Stop Smokers?
By: Dana Chicklas
Updated: December 11, 2012
HAGERSTOWN, MD - Health advocates say raising cigarette tax to $3 a pack will slash the number of smokers.
"I like the menthol, it's just a good taste," says Dwight Marace, a smoker.
Smokers say it's not the price tag, it's the habit.
"My paychecks allow me to get basically a carton of cigarettes from West Virginia, so it wouldn't make me quit, I'd pay the price," says David Boardman, a smoker.
The health advocate group, Maryland Health Care for All, is pushing to raise tax on cigarettes a dollar higher, totaling $3 per pack. The same group successfully got the state to double cigarette tax from $1 to $2 in 2007.
"In this economy, yes, it will impact: One dollar each time, it's a big impact," says Aslam Choudhry, a local small business owner.
Governor O'Malley has spent millions from this added state revenue on health care for lower income families, jumping from 34th to the 14th best state in this kind of health care. Some still say this is still a reactive, not proactive, system.
"Spend some efforts of money in the school system, to educate them. Nobody's doing that kind of stuff," says Choudhry.
And what if the legal smoking age is raised, would that help?
"Definitely not because that will influence kids more and more to smoke, because they see older people smoking," says Marace.
Small business owners say cigarettes bring in some of their lowest profits, but the government still needs to put money into education.
"A healthy body creates a healthy mind, we understand that, but they have to be balanced in both ways and in education. Taxing only never solves all the problems," says Choudhry.
"I like the menthol, it's just a good taste," says Dwight Marace, a smoker.
Smokers say it's not the price tag, it's the habit.
"My paychecks allow me to get basically a carton of cigarettes from West Virginia, so it wouldn't make me quit, I'd pay the price," says David Boardman, a smoker.
The health advocate group, Maryland Health Care for All, is pushing to raise tax on cigarettes a dollar higher, totaling $3 per pack. The same group successfully got the state to double cigarette tax from $1 to $2 in 2007.
"In this economy, yes, it will impact: One dollar each time, it's a big impact," says Aslam Choudhry, a local small business owner.
Governor O'Malley has spent millions from this added state revenue on health care for lower income families, jumping from 34th to the 14th best state in this kind of health care. Some still say this is still a reactive, not proactive, system.
"Spend some efforts of money in the school system, to educate them. Nobody's doing that kind of stuff," says Choudhry.
And what if the legal smoking age is raised, would that help?
"Definitely not because that will influence kids more and more to smoke, because they see older people smoking," says Marace.
Small business owners say cigarettes bring in some of their lowest profits, but the government still needs to put money into education.
"A healthy body creates a healthy mind, we understand that, but they have to be balanced in both ways and in education. Taxing only never solves all the problems," says Choudhry.
