It is not news that what are called “sin taxes” bring in revenue to states.

What is news is that the CDC has found that if states use additional taxes on cigarettes for smoking cessation programs, smoking rates could be drastically reduced.

Medpage Today

“If states continue to increase taxes on cigarettes and use the new revenue for smoking cessation programs, smoking rates could be drastically reduced, a new CDC report found.

“Public health officials already have learned that increasing excise taxes on cigarettes — at the federal, state, or local level — has the potential to substantially reduce smoking and discourage young people from starting, the agency’s researchers noted.

“A 10% increase in the price of cigarettes can reduce consumption by nearly 4% among adults, according to a new analysis in the April 9 issue of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.”

Why Is Smoking Still Such a Big Health Problem?

Helping individuals quit smoking is a challenge. Nicotine has been established as one of the most highly addictive of all substances. For reasons which are not clear, women have more difficulty stopping than men.

As you can see from the statistics below, 1 in 5  adults smoke or 20%. Don’t think all of the banning smoking in public places has eliminated smoking, not by a long shot.

Freeing people of addiction to nicotine add quality and years to their lives, if they are willing to quit. Not everyone is, obviously. If they are not, the best program in the world cannot help them.

However, as the excerpt from the story below shows, paying more for cigarettes through higher taxes on these products does seem to have an effect on smoking rates.

Who smokes?  (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/American Cancer Society Website)

Adults

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 46 million U.S. adults were current smokers in 2008 (the most recent year for which numbers are available). This is 20.6% of all adults (23.1% of men, 18.3% of women) — about 1 out of 5 people.

When broken down by race/ethnicity, the numbers were as follows:

There were more cigarette smokers in the younger age groups. In 2008, the CDC reported almost 23.7% of those 25 to 44 years old were current smokers, compared with 9.3% of those aged 65 or older. (Emphasis added)

High school and middle school students

Nationwide, 20% of high school students were smoking cigarettes in 2007. The most recent survey of middle school students shows that about 6% were smoking cigarettes. In both high schools and middle schools, white and Hispanic students were more likely to smoke cigarettes than other races/ethnicities. (For more information, see our document, Child and Teen Tobacco Use.)

Source: Medpage Today, April 8, 2010

Source: CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, April 9, 2010