Discount Cigarettes News
Jan 8th, 2008 - 12:20:49
Experts attribute the reduction to a comprehensive approach that included raising the combined state-city cigarette tax to $3 a pack — one of the highest in the nation — restricting public smoking, backing an aggressive anti-tobacco media campaign, cracking down on vendors who sell to minors and paying for smoking prevention and cessation programs. The results were stunning: just 20,000 public high school students out of the city’s quarter-million smoked last year. Connecticut, which has one of the nation’s best records in curbing adult smoking, is lagging far behind when it comes to youngsters. Officials say they are proud that the percentage of Connecticut’s 176,000 public high school students who smoke dropped by a third between 2000 and 2005, from 25.6 percent to 17 percent. The state restricts public smoking and levies a cigarette tax of $2 per pack. A more vigorous campaign could surely have done more to reduce students’ smoking. Connecticut has for years been content with a scatter-shot approach, spreading dollars for prevention and treatment among several state departments with little coordination or leadership. It spends little or nothing on a publicity campaign to discourage smoking. An advocacy group recently ranked Connecticut last among the states in using money from a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies to fund tobacco prevention programs. Unfortunately, Connecticut’s approach is common among the states, which too often use the settlement money for purposes other than smoking prevention. Connecticut will receive $140 million this year as part of its annual share of that settlement, yet it plans to devote a mere $3 million to fight tobacco use. New York City has shown that a strong anti-smoking campaign can change habits and save lives on a broad scale. Connecticut, and all states, should follow the city’s example. © Copyright 2006 by DiscountCigarettesBox.Com Top of Page |
