Letter: Tobacco arguments are no joke

Talk about it

The Daily Globe recently published an opinion piece by Thomas Briant, Executive Director of the Minnesota Wholesale Marketers Association, where he states that increases in tobacco taxes and fees are outrageous. We thought, at first, that his article was a late April Fool’s Day joke. Was he seriously saying that a decrease in tobacco sales is a bad thing?

Mr. Briant’s arguments miss the real math. It is outrageous that all Minnesotans, smokers and nonsmokers, are forced to pay for the devastating health, emotional and economic costs of smoking and tobacco use. His argument fails to acknowledge that the tobacco products his members profit from kill 5,500 Minnesotans each year and cost $2 billion in excess health care costs that we all subsidize through our taxes and insurance premiums. What is outrageous is that the tobacco industry continues to target our kids with candy-flavored cigarettes, cherry-flavored snuff tobacco and “cool” smoking paraphernalia. It is outrageous that so many of our close friends and family members continue to suffer from chronic or fatal tobacco-related diseases.

Passing the Freedom to Breathe Act and increasing the price on tobacco products is the most effective public health tool we have to help people quit and prevent kids from ever starting to smoke. And that, ultimately will reduce health care costs and saves lives. There is nothing outrageous about that. No joke.

Tags: opinion, letters, tobacco