SAN DIEGO — Smoking has dropped to historic lows nationwide, dramatically decreasing revenue from tobacco taxes.
SAN DIEGO — Smoking has dropped to historic lows nationwide, dramatically decreasing revenue from tobacco taxes.
In search of funds, a growing number of states are taxing electronic cigarettes — a trend that is sparking a fierce public health debate over whether it will deter smokers from switching to a safer alternative.
California became the seventh state to tax e-cigarettes with the overwhelming approval of a Nov. 8 ballot measure.
Proposition 56 also will add a $2 per pack state tax to cigarettes onto the already existing 87 cents per pack tax.
State officials are still calculating the new tax structure.
The vaping industry estimates the tax could hike up the price of the battery-operated devices and liquids by more than 60 percent, making it more expensive to vape than smoke, even with the additional per-pack tobacco tax.
“California just made the most attractive option unattractive for many smokers, and unaffordable,” said Gregory Conley of the American Vaping Association. “Some may never make an attempt to quit.”
The taxation of e-cigarettes has split the public health community between those who support e-cigarettes being treated the same as tobacco and those who see them as an important tool in the fight against smoking.
There’s no scientific consensus on the risks or advantages of “vaping.”
“It’s one of the nastiest debates I’ve ever seen in the public health community, and I’ve been researching tobacco control policies for 40 years,” University of Michigan public health professor Kenneth Warner said.
“The momentum, if you will, is in the direction against e-cigarettes, for sure, and it is unfortunate in a big way, because we may be missing out on a potential intervention that could reduce the toll of smoking by a lot.”