3 ms·
Your comment is not true, there were numerous studies on the impact of high taxation of tobacco products and strong evidence that it does help even for people o
by belval 6y ago
Your comment is not true, there were numerous studies on the impact of high taxation of tobacco products and strong evidence that it does help even for people of low socioeconomical status[1].
[1] Bader P, Boisclair D, Ferrence R. Effects of tobacco taxation and pricing on smoking behavior in high risk populations: a knowledge synthesis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2011;8(11):4118-4139. doi:10.3390/ijerph8114118
Quote from the above article:
"There was strong evidence that raising cigarette prices through increased taxes is a more effective tobacco control policy measure for reducing smoking behavior among youth, young adults, and persons of low socioeconomic status, compared to the general population."
- _qulr 6y agoI just looked at the article. Unfortunately it has very little data about how much smoking is reduced by higher taxes. The one bit of actual numbers I found: "On average, a price increase of 10% on a pack of cigarettes would reduce demand for cigarettes by about 4% for the general adult population in high income countries". That's great, for the small percentage of people who quit smoking. But for the majority who continue smoking after higher taxes, it is indeed as I said, "This ends up just penalizing poor people." It's blatantly obvious if you go to any convenience store that smoking has not been stopped by higher cigarette taxes, and thus a lot of people are simply paying more in taxes while continuing to smoke. It's interesting that the article talks about the effect of cigarette taxes on youth, because currently in the US, retailers are forbidden to sell any nicotine product to anyone under age 21. If anything, it seems that the issue is not taxes but rather our extremely lax enforcement of the law against selling cigarettes to minors.