Anchorage Absurdity
The Anchorage Assembly is celebrating stupidity by acting to treat vaping products in exactly the same way as tobacco by including e-cigarettes in the policy for tobacco taxation
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by Dave Cross
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Anchorage city officials have decided to treat the best form of tobacco harm reduction as being exactly the same as tobacco. Vaping products will now be placed under the tobacco tax regime which means eliquids and devices will now carry a ridiculous levy of 55% on the wholesale price.
The measure was put forward by Suzanne LaFrance and Christopher Constant, arguing that the city had seen a dramatic rise in the number of teens vaping – claiming that 25% of school children now vape.
The American Lung Association (ALA) has been spouting lies about vaping for years. The ALA’s Alaskan director Marge Stoneking is quoted as saying: “Now e-cigarettes are addicting a new generation of youth, threatening all of that [declining smoking rates] progress. Significantly increasing taxes on tobacco products results in fewer kids starting to smoke and more adults quitting while at the same time providing revenue to the municipality.
“We know that this is an important step forward that will help children that will keep kids away from becoming addicted. Because this is an epidemic. It’s a problem. And we can take action with this to make it better.”
Shaun D’Sylva runs a vape store in Anchorage and doesn’t see things the same way as the ALA’s regional mouthpiece. He is reported as commenting: “Imposing this tax on something that is actually helping people get away from combustible cigarettes and actually costing the state and local resources less money seems a little problematic.”
Yet again, mirroring the action taken in California, the approach isn’t being conducted in an even-handed manner. While all vape products will now carry the tobacco tax rate, all vape products used for the consumption of marijuana escape the new legislation. The amendment to exclude by marijuana retailers from having to deal with the additional excise charge was passed in Anchorage’s Assembly without any opposition.
In August, Pesko, Courtemanche, and Maclean from the National Bureau of Economic Research published a paper that concluded vape tax rises lead to vapers stopping vaping with the majority switching back to smoking.
They noted two studies in particular which found “a negative association between e-cigarette tax adoption and e-cigarette use”.
What possible motivation could Anchorage officials have to encourage vapers back to buying cigarettes?
Related:
- “The Effects Of Traditional Cigarette And E-Cigarette Taxes On Adult Tobacco Product Use” by Pesko, Courtemanche, and Maclean, 2019 – [link]
- “The Effects Of Traditional Cigarette And E-Cigarette Taxes On Adult Tobacco Product Use” by Pesko, Courtemanche, and Maclean, 2020 – [link]
Photo Credit:
Anchorage image edited from a photo by David Tatum on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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