Summer 2017 SAVI Online Magazine Emagazine Summer 2017 mn and ae edits - web | Page 11

And, crucially, policy makers’ most powerful
tool to reduce smoking is blunted in Indiana,
relative to other states. Studies consistently
demonstrate that “cigarettes are no
different than any other consumer product,”
in that they’re price sensitive: “As the price
of cigarettes goes up, the sale of cigarettes
goess down.”
Indiana’s tax per pack is $0.995, which
is lower than all but 13 states. The average
tax in all states is $1.69 per pack. “A broad
coalition of business, health care, not-for-
profit and academic groups have joined
forces to advocate for legislation to raise
the tax by $1.50,” the report notes. The
move would have both human and economic
benefits, “saving countless Hoosier lives
and avoiding millions in healthcare and lost
productivity costs.”
Stricter smoke-free air laws would also
make a difference, along with raising the
legal age for purchasing tobacco. State
lawmakers could also address the problem
“I DON’T THINK, EVEN 10 TO 15
YEARS AGO, PEOPLE REALIZED
THE EXTENT OF THE HARM DONE
BY SMOKING.”
— VIRGINIA CAINE

Director, Marion County Health Department
by reducing the number of tobacco retailers
and imposing tighter restriction on point-
of-sale marketing—actions that cities and
towns can’t take on their own, by state law.
The key is to stay focused, and to keep
working on a problem that poses serious
health challenges and imposes steep costs
on the whole state—but affects different
communities in very different ways.
“We have to continue to be vigilant,”
Caine says. “We have to have discussions,
and we have to push our policy makers to
understand that we still have a crisis of
public health related to tobacco use.”
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