In campaign to stop teen vaping, states turn to tried-and-true remedy: taxes – By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez (Kaiser Health News) / Dec 1 2019
Historically, taxation has been an effective tool in reducing the number of people who smoke.
Kathleen Hambleton once used to spend $100 a week on Marlboro Reds.
The 43-year-old nurse from Saxtons River, Vt., paid a high price for her addiction to smoking, undergoing multiple throat surgeries. The financial hit was also a big burden.
After lozenges, patches and hypnosis failed to help Hambleton quit, she tried vaping. She is convinced she is healthier now and spends less than $40 per month on her vaping supplies.
But Vermont recently passed a 92 percent wholesale tax on vaping and e-cigarette products. Hambleton believes the sudden and sharp price hike is prohibitively expensive.
“When they imposed the 92 percent tax, I can’t affordably pay that,” she said. “No one can.”
Historically, taxation has been an effective tool in reducing the number of people who smoke.
The World Health Organization estimates that a 10 percent rise in prices causes overall smoking rates to drop about 4 percent in high-income countries. Some states are relying on this strategy to work again ― this time to discourage consumers, especially teenagers and young adults, from using e-cigarettes and vaping products.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia have passed those taxes, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a nonprofit advocacy group. But whether taxes would be as effective in combating vaping as they have been with smoking is unknown, state officials and researchers say.
Continue to article: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaping/campaign-stop-teen-vaping-states-turn-tried-true-remedy-taxes-n1092126
