The following letter was published December 15, 2017 in the North Platte Telegraph.
Maybe you’ve already seen them: stark, plain ads running on primetime television, paid for by Big Tobacco, admitting that they have lied to Americans for decades about the dangers of their products. A court ordered them to run these ads to start to repair the damage they’ve done by suppressing science about their products.
But decades of lies will take effort to undo. We have a chance during this legislative session in Nebraska to help.
Evidence clearly shows that raising tobacco prices through regular and significant tax rate increases encourages people who use tobacco to quit or cut down, and prevents kids from ever using the deadly product.
We have a chance to stand up to Big Tobacco by raising the tobacco tax. Our Legislature has a bill in the works that would do just that. This bill stayed in committee last session, and it should move forward this session.
As an American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network volunteer, I’m hopeful lawmakers will pass legislation in 2018 to raise Nebraska’s tax on cigarettes.
North Platte