Guest view: We all pay the price for tobacco addiction
Each year in Montana, 400 children become addicted to tobacco. Vaping and e-cigarettes have become incredibly popular, particularly with teenagers and young adults. Many of the kids I talk to believe that while smoking is bad for them, vaping or using a Juul is not. Estimates at this point are that 30 percent of our teenagers are utilizing tobacco products.
Tobacco companies are spending tens of millions of dollars a year crafting marketing programs to the people of Montana, in particular targeting our young adult population, to begin using nicotine.
As a physician, I see the devastating effects of tobacco on a daily basis. Lung cancer, heart disease, COPD, peripheral vascular disease, poor bone quality, broken bones and wounds that won’t heal — the list goes on.
Tobacco kills 1,600 Montanans every year. We all pay the price for this addiction. In addition to losing members of our families and communities, tobacco costs our state more than $440 million in health care costs each year. Tobacco use impacts every aspect of medical care in the hospital.
This November, voters in Montana have an opportunity to save lives. Initiative 185, the Healthy Montana Initiative, will add a $2 tax to cigarettes and add a similar tax to other tobacco-related products. At this point, E-cigarettes and vaping products aren’t even taxed in Montana (in comparison to cigarettes, which carry a tax of $1.70/pack). One of the aims of the tax is to decrease youth smoking by 20 percent within five years.
Money from the new tax will go to fund several important health projects in Montana. These projects include suicide prevention for veterans, services to help keep seniors independent in their homes, tobacco cessation programs, and health insurance for more than 96,000 Montanans. Medicaid expansion has been a tremendous program for nearly 1 in 10 Montanans, and without state funding the program will expire in 2019, leaving those 96,000 people without health insurance coverage.
I have seen many ads purporting I-185 to be an unfunded mandate. The Montana Office of Budget and Program Planning found that I-185 is revenue neutral — unless you’re a smoker, it doesn’t add a penny to your taxes. What it does do is save thousands of lives and fund vital programs for Montanans. The American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, the Montana Medical Society and AARP have all endorsed I-185.
Please join me in casting a vote for Montana’s children and adults, to help protect our kids from the ravages of tobacco use. Let’s provide essential service for Montanans and save our kids from a lifetime of addiction. Please vote yes on I-185.
Dr. Kerry Hale is an Orthopaedic Surgeon at St. Peter’s Health Medical Group in Helena.