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A taxing problem in anti-cigarette age!
What, you thought we were talking about booze?
Actually, the once-and-maybe- eventually-to-be-banned-again substance in question is the cigarette.
And yes, there was a time when not just the lighting up of a cigarettes cigarettes but the manufacture and ownership of cigarettes was illegal, a fascinating historical footnote recounted in Cassandra Tate's 1999 book "Cigarette Wars: The Triumph of 'The Little White Slaver.' " 
In 1893, Tate writes, Washington's Legislature made it illegal to manufacture, buy, sell, give or furnish anyone cigarettes, cigarettes paper or cigarettes wrappers (cigars and pipes were largely exempt from this crusade). The law was quickly struck down in federal court as being an unconstitutional restraint of interstate commerce, and later repealed. But the ban was re-enacted in 1907, and extended to the possession of cigarettes in 1909, she notes. That law was repealed in 1911. More than a dozen other states enacted similar laws in that era.
The cigarettes prohibition movement was driven not so much by health concerns as by a belief that they were a signal of and precursor to more-objectionable immoral behavior. The anti-cigarette campaign was fueled by an alliance of the temperance and progressive movements, Tate writes, but World War I and the practice of distributing cigarettes to soldiers largely ended it.
Interestingly, Tate notes that cigarettes smoking has "never been a habit of the majority in the United States," adding that even at the height of the Cigarettes Age in 1965, only 42 percent of American adults smoked.
That percentage is on the decline, thanks to a contemporary prohibitionist movement driven by a combination of health campaigns, the cost of the habit, a shift in societal acceptance of smoking cigarettes, and regulations that haven't yet banned cigarettes outright but might well get there.
The result? The state Department of Revenue's statistics and estimates show a steady decline over the past decade in Washington in total consumption of packs, the percentage of the population that smokes cigarettes (from just under 24 percent to just 18 percent today) and the average number of packs per smoker a year.
That poses a big conundrum for government, which seems to operate on a modification of a familiar Christian doctrine: Hate the sin, love the tax revenue the sinner generates.
It's a lot of tax revenue to love. Washington's cigarettes tax (currently $2.025 per 20-cigarette pack, one of the nation's highest) generated nearly $436 million in fiscal 2006, just under 3 percent of all state taxes.
Over the past decade annual collections have increased or decreased from the previous year, depending in large part on whether the tax was increased.
Officially, government deplores cigarettes smoking because of the health effects on smokers and non-smokers cigarettes alike. Declining cigarette consumption might pay off for the state some day in the form of lower health care costs -- maybe. It definitely will cost the state now in the form of lower tax revenue.
But such is the lure of all that revenue to be collected that government finds it hard to give up the habit. The Associated Press reported recently that Oregon's governor has proposed expanding the state's health insurance program for children, and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said he'd back doing the same thing at the federal level.
Aside from the problem of an increasing reliance on a decreasing tax base, government efforts to squeeze more money out of smokers create additional problems. Higher taxes are an economic disincentive to buy cigarettes. Smokers can deal with that disincentive either by cutting consumption or (more likely) buying from Indian reservations that don't have tax agreements with the state, from states with lower cigarette tax rates (Oregon: $1.18 a pack; Idaho: 57 cents) or on the Internet.
It's apparent that government hasn't yet figured out how to resolve the conflict. If the trends continue, and if the anti-smoking campaigns work as intended, the issue will be resolved for it, in the form of declining consumption and falling tax revenue that even more tax increases on a pack won't be able to make up.
Then government will have to look somewhere else to make up the lost revenue, perhaps in the form of another sin or vice that can be tapped -- at least before the clean-living types show up to spoil the fun.
Flavored cigarettes the newest assault on our kids
Reynolds Tobacco, the company that brought us Joe Camel, is up to its old tricks, targeting our children again.
Twenty years ago, Reynolds Tobacco, or RJR, created Joe Camel, who blew smoke rings over Times Square and was so heavily promoted that more children recognized this cartoon character than Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse. Only after years of complaints from public health advocates and parents, and the threat of legal action by the Federal Trade Commission, did RJR shut down its Joe Camel campaign.
All the while, RJR maintained that it did not market to children. But with the release of internal company documents years later, one of RJR's key papers, "Younger Smokers - Ages 14-25," revealed the company's interest in marketing cigarettes to young smokers. 
Now RJR is marketing the sweet smell and taste of flavored cigarettes that mask the harshness of natural tobacco, which can deter some first-time smokers, especially children. These cigarettes are packaged in shiny tins with cool new names, flashy advertising and candy flavors ranging from watermelon ("Beach Breezer") to berry ("Bayou Blast") to pineapple and coconut ("Kauai Kolada").
As Reynolds has known for decades, 90 percent of adult smokers become addicted as kids, and the younger a child begins to smoke cigarettes, the likelier the child is to become a regular smoker. Moreover, the age at which kids first try cigarettes has been declining and now stands at just under 12. By masking the regular cigarettes flavor and scent, flavored cigarettes make it even more appealing for a 12- or 13-year-old to take that initial puff and keep smoking cigarettes until he or she gets hooked.
Reynolds introduced these cigarettes in 1999, slipping a pellet into the cigarettes filters to give the smoke a candy flavor. But flavored cigarettes sales really exploded in 2004, thanks to eye-catching advertisements in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone - all popular reading material for boys and girls.
In mid-2005, under pressure from states such as California and from federal legislators, Reynolds began pulling these advertisements. But the company continues to sell its candy-flavored smokes.
Reynolds' claim that it flavors cigarettes to give adults an alternative to traditional smokes cigarettes is belied by the findings of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. That research institute found that, compared with adult smokers over 25, more than three times as many teens who smoke light up flavored cigarettes.
Reynolds now sells five Camel Exotic Blend flavors: Dark Mint, Mandarin Mint, Twist, Izmir Stinger and Crema. In addition, RJR has marketed 15 Limited Edition Camel Exotic Blends over the past five years, including Winter Mochamint, Midnight Madness and Twista Lime.
This isn't the first time the company has targeted members of a specific group, hoping to hook them as lifetime smokers. Reynolds blatantly aimed its "Uptown" mentholated, nonfiltered cigarettes at African-American consumers with plans to inaugurate the brand as part of celebrations during Black History Month in 1990.
One of us (Louis Sullivan), then secretary of health and human services, denounced the marketing of Uptown cigarettes - the first time a Cabinet member had spoken out against a specific brand. As opposition rose among African-Americans, Reynolds quickly backed down.
Buoyed by its success in pushing candy-flavored cigarettes, Reynolds has now introduced alcohol-flavored smokes cigarettes. To make them appealing to our kids, Reynolds has marketed them with names based on gambling lingo as well: ScrewDriver Slots, BlackJack Gin, Snake Eyes Scotch and Back Alley Blend (a bourbon-flavored cigarettes).
Despite the prevalence of national and state anti-smoking cigarettes campaigns, 4,000 kids under 18 will try their first cigarettes today, and more than 1,500 other children and teens will become addicted. These are the replacement smokers Reynolds and other cigarettes merchants need to fill the shoes of adults who have been killed or crippled by smoking cigarettes, or who have quit.
The disturbing reality is that we may be starting to slip back after years of progress in reducing smoking cigarettes among our children. From 1997 through 2004 the number of children who smoke went down as court cases and public outrage curbed cigarettes advertising to children. But in 2005 the youth smoking cigarettes rate increased.
Is it just a coincidence that our success in persuading kids to stay away from cigarettes is slowing just as the marketing of flavored cigarettes is picking up?
To us, hawking candy-flavored cigarettes is child abuse. It's time for the public, parents, and state and federal officials to demand an end to it.
I Like Girls Who Smoke Cigarettes
I Like Girls Who Smoke Cigarettes
Yeah, we know cigarettes kill. Our generation is the first to grow up in a world where everyone knows how bad cigarettes are. We’ve been subject to relentless anti-tobacco campaigns, health classes, informational videos ad nauseum. We’ve all seen those Truth commercials with hip young activists confronting evil Phillip Morris executives Michael Moore-style. We know all about the zillions of horrible chemicals packed in every glorious puff.
Our childhood role models didn’t include the Marlboro man on TV, and none of us can recall the days before “where can I go smoke” replaced “where’s your ashtray?” Our generation knows that not everyone is doing it. In fact, we’re well aware that most people don’t smoke cigarettes, and the number who do is steadily declining. For our grandparents, people smoked cigarettes because it was the thing to do.
But for our generation, smokers do it because it’s the thing not to do. And honestly, after hearing “cigarettes are death” our whole lives, how could any self-respecting rebellious young person not be tempted to try just one? Besides, we UVMers love counterculture shit like that.
 We’re more rebellious than the average college students; from our environmentalists to our new football players, from skateboards and pot to Red Rocks and naked bike riding— our interests don’t usually fit the norm very well. We’re all fighting the power somehow. Cigarette smokers are also fighting the establishment, and let me tell you, The Man has definitely quit smoking boges.
The past ten years have been the decade of tobacco hate, and The Man has been coming down hard. As many as 30 states, including Vermont, have enacted laws banning smoking in certain publicly-accessible places like bars, restaurants, and workplaces. The anti-smoking group Reality Check is lobbying the MPAA to slap an R rating on movies that show actors smoking. Amusement parks have adopted “Designated Smoking Zones”. States like New Jersey have raised the legal age to purchase tobacco to 19 (dumb), and Vermont has enacted a ridiculous state law requiring smokers to be 20 feet away from any building before lighting up. Come on.
Yes, we are the first generation of cigarette smokers to be an oppressed minority. But like all oppressed communities, we band together. There are ample unspoken connections between cigarette smokers.
Too-serious RAs who enforce the 20 foot rule in the rain will unknowingly bond perfect strangers as they share dirty looks. Light acquaintances will be happy to bum cigs, share lighters, and chatter about preferred brands. Neighbors will connect through the look that says “I feel ya,” when puffing at 2 in the morning in the snow.
Like many cigarette smokers, I’ve been back and forth plenty of times. I had my first cigarette in my aunt’s basement when I was 14. It was a disgusting Newport 100. But turning 18, and the subsequent ability to buy a pack at the Shell station really got me going.
But then I would get really turned off and stop smoking. Then I would start again. Then stop. Then start, and so on. I understand the concerns of nonsmokers. I’ve raced across both poles of the smoking spectrum myself. Cigs smell gross to those who don’t smoke, and it’s annoying to get hit with a blast of unexpected secondhand smoke on the way to class.
With that said, non-smokers have to put things in perspective. Smoking laws need to make smoking spaces that smokers and nonsmokers find acceptable. The current mentality finds no fault in inconveniencing smokers as much as possible.
Keep in mind that human adults, on average, breathe 23,000 times a day. So, is it really that horrible to deal with a miniscule amount of secondhand smoke here and there?
Non-smokers can be annoying. Smokers are ostracized and inconvenienced. The evidence of how unhealthy cigarettes are is everywhere. It’s a hard knock life for smokers of the 21st century.
That’s why I like girls who smoke cigarettes.
They say, “hell with all the evidence, I’m gonna smoke.” They look at all those Dr. Downers in the medical community and say, “I’m young, I’ll do what I want.” They get lectured by non-smokers and say, “I just don’t give a fuck.” They’re not worried about what guys think of their habit, and they’re certainly not worried about conforming. They know they have flaws, and have no problem standing outside and puffing them away. Girls who smoke cigarettes are confident, and they kick ass.
Besides, cigarettes are more than just a filthy vicious nicotine addiction. They’re a great vehicle for some quick socialization, they cut stress, they’re great after sex, great after pot, and come on, you know they do look really cool.
So keep fighting The Man. If Barack Obama is a cig addict, (seriously) you can be too. Go puff 10 feet from the library and see who has got a problem with it. I’ll come join you. Hell, maybe I can get your number?
Just make sure you keep some Trident in your purse next to those Marlboros.
Cigarette companies continue to market in N.C.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington advocacy group, said Thursday that tobacco companies spent $569 million on marketing in North Carolina in 2005.
The campaign said it calculated its numbers by comparing national marketing data provided in a recent Federal Trade Commission and multiplying it by the percentage of U.S. cigarette sales done in the Tar Heel state.
"The vast sums spent to market tobacco products show why it is so urgent that Congress pass legislation granting the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products," Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a prepared statement.
Congress has pending legislation that would grant the U.S. Food & Drug Administration authority over tobacco products.
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