April 21st, 2008 - Richard Okelberry

The State of Utah recently announced that it will be receiving an additional $14 million as part of the settlement with tobacco manufacturers, bringing this one year tobacco settlement total to $42 million. The additional money has been attributed to the Attorney General's Office holding Big Tobacco accountable for healthcare costs related to smoking. As usual, smokers who are the primary contributors to this money will see only a small amount of this money actually used to help pay for smoking secession or related medical problems. Instead the majority of the money will be spread around to unrelated government programs. Of course this settlement money does not include the fact that Utah currently collects an additional $60 million annually in cigarette-related taxes. The actual projected income in 2008 for the state of Utah from Tobacco is closer to $104 million.

While many believe that this settlement money comes out of the pockets of the CEOs at the Big Tobacco companies, in reality, all of that money is collected by increasing the average price per pack of cigarettes; meaning that smokers eventually provide all of this funding. With only $7.2 million of the estimated $104 million going to Utah's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program a full $96.8 million will be left to the discretionary spending habits of state legislators. Consider that on average the Federal and State Governments net $2.22 per pack of cigarettes. This means that over half of the average sale price for a pack of cigarettes goes to the government. This amount is nearly seven times the actual profit seen by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company on a single pack when adjusted for production costs. Because these collected taxes represent money paid for government programs that the average citizen doesn't contribute to, the average non-smoker actually receives a net gain in income. Thus, each non-smoker in the state of Utah is actually profiting from cigarette sales. Faced with these facts and given the generally negative feelings about smoking in Utah, I would hope that we as the public would begin to reject the notion of profiting from tobacco sales and instead lean towards adopting a policy that will help bring smoking rates in Utah to the lowest possible levels.

Rather than calling for a repeal of cigarette taxes, I would like to encourage legislators to set up a completely separate fund where every dime of revenue from cigarette taxes and settlements can be properly dispersed. This fund should be used exclusively for Stop Smoking programs, Youth Interdiction and smoking-related illness. Regular surveys have indicated that the majority of smokers have tried to quit in the last year. So why is the government not using more of these funds to help them? A comprehensive, well-funded program that provides individual counseling while distributing free quitting aids like Transdermal Patches and Nicotine Gum would be a far more effective way of helping smokers quit than spending Tobacco dollars on various unrelated programs. Of all the methods of quitting smoking, hypnosis has been shown to be the most effective, yet none of the money paid by the smokers themselves has ever been allocated to providing them with this valuable tool. In addition, some of these funds could

also be used to help local law enforcement increase compliance checks at retailers. We all know that if we can stop kids from every trying tobacco, the likelihood that they will ever pick up the habit drops significantly.

Certainly, some will argue that state income from Tobacco only helps to repay the state for the cost of treating smoking-related illness. This is a myth that has been perpetuated by State Governments from the beginning of the Big Tobacco Settlements as a way of increasing their settlement payments. In reality, the average non-smoker is economically a much greater burden on the government than smokers will ever be. The illnesses associated with smoking are not exclusive to smoking. People who have never smoked will regularly die from heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema and other similar diseases. The major difference between a smoker and a non-smoker is the fact that smokers will on average die at a much younger age. This means that they will collect far less Social Security and be less dependent on government medical programs like CHIP, Medicare and Medicaid. It is the healthy individual who lives a long life that actually ends up costing the tax payers the most. Unlike the average smoker, someone who lives well into their 70s and 80s will incur ever increasing medical expenses that will often culminate in long-term, 24-hour assisted living services. Anyone who has ever had a family member that needed these services knows that it certainly isn't cheap and regularly requires some government assistance to cover all the expenses.

Our goal as a state should be to reduce smoking to the lowest possible levels without requiring an outright ban of these products. This is best achieved by giving smokers a way out of their addiction. For those that still think that all smokers can simply quit, you should understand that nicotine is considered one of the most powerfully addictive chemicals. While some do have the genetic disposition that makes it easier for them to abruptly stop smoking, for many the process of quitting is similar to the effects experienced when fasting without food for 3 full days. As a society we need to stop playing the blame game when it comes to smoking and wash our hands of the money earned from tobacco sales. We all need to oppose a policy that encourages Legislators to act the same way that Big Tobacco has; turning a blind eye to the death and heartache caused by addiction to cigarettes simply to make a buck. Utah has turned its back on accepting money from gambling; now we must turn our back on profiting from the deaths of our citizens. No more should we drive down roads paved with the blood of our valued brothers and sisters or sons and daughters. Together we can stop demonizing people for their misguided decisions and instead lend a helping hand.

Richard Okelberry - Managing Editor