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Higher taxes needed
to reduce smoking

THE ISSUE The state Legislature is considering a bill to increase tobacco taxes by $1.20 per pack of cigarettes by 2008.

HEFTY increases in cigarette taxes should discourage Hawaii smokers from continuing their lethal habit and young people from beginning it. Even if online tobacco alternatives survive, a growing number of smokers should opt for good health and seek to end their addiction. The tax hikes should bring those good results.

The state House is considering a Senate-passed measure that would increase the tobacco tax from the current $1.40 a pack to $1.80 next summer, to $2.20 a pack in 2007 and to $2.60 a pack in 2008, resulting in a price increase from today's $5 a pack to $6.20 in three years. Those increases would surpass today's tax highs of $2.46 in Rhode Island and $2.40 in Washington state. State and city taxes have brought prices to as much as $8 a pack in New York City.

Numerous studies have shown that increased tobacco taxes lead to reduced smoking by adults and teenagers. The consensus is that a 10 percent increase in cigarette prices reduces cigarette consumption by 3 percent to 5 percent and reduces the number of children who smoke by as much as 7 percent, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

When Michigan and Montana adopted significant tobacco tax increases, they reported that phone calls to their smoking quit lines skyrocketed -- to a six-month total of 3,100 calls from only 500 in the previous six months in Michigan and 2,000 in the first 20 days in Montana, compared with a previous average of 380 calls a month.

Half of the revenue from Hawaii's tax increase would go to the state's Tobacco Prevention and Control Trust Fund. However, many smokers unable to withdraw from nicotine may opt for buying their cigarettes online, avoiding taxes altogether or buying from vendors in low-tax states. Fourteen percent of U.S. tobacco sales are expected to come from the Internet this year.

A vendor shipping cigarettes across state lines is required by a 1949 federal law to provide buyers' names to their home state taxing authorities, and tax collectors in some states have begun to sting smokers for back taxes. Many Web vendors operate from foreign countries; they are forbidden from importing American brands to the U.S.

More than half of the online cigarette vendors claim to be affiliated with tax-exempt American Indian tribes, but some of those operations might face difficulty. The Seneca Nation of western New York, which operates more than 100 such Web sites, has notified its customers that Mastercard has terminated its account at Seneca's biggest site, and that it plans turn to electronic check payments instead of credit card or debit card methods.