We didn’t increase the state cigarette tax nearly enough, but at least, back in 2010, we finally did raise it, after years of dithering. Here’s the result, from the AP:
State health officials say a survey of South Carolina teens shows cigarette use among high school students has dropped significantly in the past two years.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control said Thursday that their South Carolina Youth Tobacco Survey found about 15 percent of high school students have smoked. In 2011, nearly 24 percent of students said they had used cigarettes.
DHEC credits the drop to the increase in cigarette taxes in 2010 and aggressive anti-smoking campaigns. The agency also points out that 53 of the state’s 81 school districts are tobacco-free. Only 36 school districts banned all tobacco products in 2011….
As we kept explaining all those years when I was at the paper, the reason to raise the cigarette tax had nothing to do with the revenues or what they’d be used for. It was a well-established fact that increasing the cost of cigarettes reduces the number of kids who get hooked on a lifetime addiction.
And now we see the expected result.
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Why are any school districts allowing tobacco? This isn’t the 1970s when students in middle school got a smoking permit from their parents and hung out in the smoking hole, returning reeking like ashtrays!
Excellent question.
I would like to map those laggardly school districts – are they huddled in the Pee Dee, or spread across the state (likely in belts, maybe)? Think about it: More than ONE In THREE school districts in SC are not tobacco free. That is an abysmal sign; and probably something with a high correlation to other educational issues plaguing the state’s schools – and school districts.
I’ve lost seven friends and two relatives in the past sixteen months;long before their time,to cigarettes…
One friend shot herself.Terminal w/six months to live,so.
Correlation does not imply causation.
BS
You didn’t know these people,yet your presumptuousness overrides the facts,and circumstances of their deaths?
Bryan was referring to Brad’s post, not your comment. Bryan understands that people who die from smoking almost always started young, he is just choosing to be argumentative.
Personalizing, and personal jabs, however, are counter-productive to discourse. I think, not that anyone has asked me, that it is better to challenge another’s ideas in a way that may, over time, influence them to begin to seek new perspectives of the world around us if we want to be heard and have an impact on conversation. We all should be more about persuasion and less reliant on denigration. There is too much of that in our world today – and nobody responds well to it.
Bill, Mark is correct.
I am sorry that your friends and relatives passed away due to cigarettes. I certainly meant no offense to you, and I apologize for any confusion. Cigarettes are certainly unhealthy, and we should do everything we can to discourage young people from taking up such a destructive habit.
My only point was that I’m not entirely convinced that the modest tax increase on cigarettes is the sole causal factor in the reduction of young people smoking. I think other factors may be at work here. For instance, I think that cigarette smoking is less culturally acceptable in 2013 than it was in 1970. Attitudes and norms have changed, regardless of the price.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Any reduction in teen smoking (for any reason) is a good thing. Mark is partially right in that I’m also being a little argumentative here, but only for the sake of promoting some critical thinking. I’m just not prepared to give a tax increase the sole credit for the downward dip.
Also, that’s not to say that I’m against increasing the cigarette tax. (I’m not.) That’s an entirely different point.
Anyway, sorry if there was any offense taken.
That’s fine.I’m not all here.My sister died very recently,and we were close.It’s a wicked addiction.
I am sorry. Addiction is tough.
I think that teens are still smoking. I just think they switched substances…