Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A recent editorial, “Statewide smoking ban would benefit Kansans,” encouraged the legislature to pass a statewide ban on smoking in public places. The government’s attempts to tackle the public health degradation caused by tobacco use is noble, but its implementation has become authoritarian, hypocritical, and elitist.
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Read The Kansan’s April 17 editorial in support of a statewide smoking ban.
The continued tax increases on cigarette smokers is reverse class warfare. It is a relentless attack on the poor: More than half of all American smokers make less than $36,000 a year. It is a regressive tax that takes heavily from the poor to fund health care while removing the tax responsibility from high-income individuals, as only 12 percent of individuals with an income of more than $90,000 are smokers (according to a U.S. News and World Report survey).
Anti-smoking measures also unfairly discriminate between smokers and alcohol users. For example, the state of Texas has a relatively high cigarette tax for a Southern state, in contrast to a relatively low level of taxation on alcoholic products. The taxation on a pack of Marlboro Reds alone is roughly $3, which, with a pre-tax price of roughly $3.50, is an 85 percent taxation. A six-pack of beer, such as Coors Light, averages about $6 with an $.85 tax. That’s a 15 percent tax on beer.
The dangers of cigarettes are placed heavily upon the user, not the bystander, whereas alcohol is the opposite. Close to 13,000 were killed in drunk driving accidents last year, and thousands more are maimed in accidents, families are broken by deaths, and a multitude of sexual crimes are aided by the effects of alcohol. No one has his or her family plowed down on the highway because someone smoked too much.
The draconian laws against smokers need to be quelled or at least equally leveled upon the alcohol user, perhaps by methods such as introducing the $12 six-pack, closing bars on weekends to control peak hours and prevent drunk driving, limiting the quantity of liquor that can be purchased at one time, or imposing breathalyzer tests before you can put your car in drive. Once cigarettes are run off the earth, what substance will be run off next? Be careful in what you wish for. It may come true.
— — Brad Pillsbury is a freshman from Tyler, Texas.
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Comments
Letter: A single glass kills more tha a single Camel
The more these issues go on in the media, the more libertarian I feel.
Letter: A single glass kills more tha a single Camel
why do the letters in response to kansan editorials always seem twice as reasoned in half the space?
Letter: A single glass kills more tha a single Camel
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/824446.html
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