I once had a girlfriend who said the only piece of drug advice her father offered her was to never start smoking.
My name is Walbert and I’m a smoker, and I will stay one even after I quit. I started the day after we broke up.
Targeting smokers with taxes is nothing new and justifying it with something we’d be hard-pressed to argue — like funding health insurance for impoverished children — is customary.
This didn’t make the April 1 federal tax increase — the largest ever — any less painful.
My fixation is not limited to my mouth; I enjoy working with my fingers and years ago I settled into roll-your-own tobacco. I consider assembling the perfect cigarette an art.
Tearing apart compressed tobacco, crinkling paper to reduce air pockets, distributing tobacco evenly for a steady burn, leaving a quarter-inch empty for my lips, rolling tight but not too tight, licking the seal, folding the flap, lighting the match, the first inhale, the final exhale, the foot-stamp of extinguishment — these are the little moments when I am human.
I also chose roll-your-own because it was cheaper than pre-packaged, but that changed on April 1; the federal tax on loose tobacco was raised from $1.10 to $24.78 per pound, the largest of the taxes by a wide margin. This tax was heavily lobbied by competing big tobacco companies, who sought to make government treatment more equal.
I won’t say that cigarettes aren’t bad for my health, though I might argue that most of the good things in life are.
I will, however, highlight for a moment the issue of governmental “equality.”
Recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that an estimated 43.4 million adults in America smoke, costing $96 billion a year in healthcare costs pertaining to smoking hazards. These numbers have been falling as more smokers quit or die.
The CDC also found that more than 72 million adults and 16 percent of children are obese (which is categorically different than “overweight”) and that this costs $117 billion a year. These numbers have been rising for decades due to, in no small part, continued governmental subsidies on fattening food.
Many vices are slowly easing their way into the mainstream but smokers are, and have been, given a disproportionate amount of flak.
At its worst, marijuana use kills brain cells and may cause lung cancer. In Pennsylvania, if a passenger in a car is found with less than an ounce the driver will face up to a month in prison and a $500 fine — unless it’s found in a pipe (paraphernalia) which will increase incarceration to a year and the fine to $2,500.
At its worst, alcohol use will kill an individual through the slow and painful deterioration of several organs and can kill many bystanders through reckless endangerment. In Pennsylvania, if an open container is found in a car (assuming the driver is sober, legal and a first time offender), the driver may face, at most, a $300 fine.
I understand that nonsmokers find my smoking habit offensive and that we live in a culture where their disdain towards us smokers is acceptable. I make a conscious effort to stand downwind of them, wash my hands and chew gum.
I find the sight of morbidly obese people offensive and I think they need to eat right and exercise. Many people will think I’m a bigot just for writing that.
Can anyone reading this say they are without vice? When is it fair for regulation to target some groups more and others less?
I can’t answer that. But I can offer some advice: never start smoking, and if you already have — quit while we’re ahead.
