I volunteer for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, a nonpartisan advocacy organization that is working to reduce the impact cancer has on our state. The organization supports a tax increase of $1.50 per pack of cigarettes and an equivalent amount for other tobacco products.
Our current cigarette tax of 64 cents per pack (enacted in 2002) is terribly low compared with the national average of $1.73.
This is important to me because I have seen family members (who started smoking as youths) suffer from health issues stemming from smoking: asthma, COPD, lung disease, lung cancer, throat cancer and death.
I’m hopeful our lawmakers, including my senator, State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, will vote for a $1.50-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax to reduce tobacco use. It’s time.
Sheena Helgenberger, Omaha
https://www.omaha.com/opinion/the-public-pulse-raise-nebraska-s-cigarett...