Advocates push wider tobacco tax
Smokeless products, mini-cigars targeted
Tobacco control advocates in Massachusetts are launching a drive today to raise state levies on chewing tobacco, mini-cigars, and other products not included in a tax increase imposed last year on cigarettes.
Citing national studies showing that such products are gaining popularity among youths, advocates and some lawmakers want to boost the state excise tax on a tin of chewing tobacco, for example, by $1, to $2.51 - the same as a pack of cigarettes.
The tax on other tobacco products sold individually or in smaller packs would be pegged to the cigarette levy but would be prorated to reflect the smaller quantities.
Advocates of the tax increase estimate it could generate $10 million to $17 million a year, with the money devoted to the state's Tobacco Control Program and Office of Oral Health.
But state Representative Jonathan Hecht, who is championing legislation to raise the tax, said his primary goal is not revenue creation.
"My principal motivation for wanting to sponsor this legislation is because of the public health concerns," said Hecht, a Watertown Democrat. "I have three teenagers of my own, and I know how price-sensitive their decision-making is."
There's little doubt that higher taxes on tobacco lead to lower sales, said Dr. Michael Siegel, a tobacco control specialist at Boston University School of Public Health.
Studies have shown, he said, that every 10 percent increase in cigarette prices yields a 4 percent decline in sales. Siegel said the effect is presumably similar with other tobacco products.
It is crucial that any increase in tax receipts be used for tobacco-related health services, said Siegel, who is not involved in the campaign. Otherwise, if states use the money to build roads or fix bridges, it puts them in the uncomfortable position of depending on increases in tobacco tax revenue driven by use.
A spokesman for US Smokeless Tobacco Co., the maker of top-selling products such as Skoal and Copenhagen, questioned why Massachusetts needs more tobacco-related money. States have taken in billions of dollars since 1998 as part of a legal agreement between major tobacco companies and attorneys general across the nation.
Federal excise taxes on tobacco are scheduled to increase at the end of the month. The US levy on a pack of cigarettes climbs to nearly $1.01; federal rates on other products are increasing as well but will generally remain lower than the cigarette tax.
"Tobacco products probably bear the highest tax burden of any product category," US Smokeless spokesman Bill Phelps said. "Our products are meant for adults, and we advocate for a number of practices and policies to prevent kids from having access to these products."
A report released earlier this month by federal researchers found that while use of smokeless tobacco remained stable overall from 2002 to 2007, it rose among boys 12 to 17.
Scientists have linked smokeless tobacco products to oral cancer and an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular conditions.
Russet Morrow Breslau, executive director of the antismoking advocacy group Tobacco Free Mass., said that not raising taxes on chewing tobacco and other products last year was an oversight by the Legislature, and one that could steer penny-pinching adolescents and young adults toward smokeless tobacco because it is cheaper. Her group, along with other antismoking and medical groups, will lobby legislators to support the tax measure.
"We're making a push to bring true equity to other tobacco product taxes and bring them up to the same level as cigarette taxes, so that the state gets out of the business of creating market conditions that benefit one product over another," said Kevin O'Flaherty, director of advocacy for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in the Northeast.
Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com. 
