Legislation

Legislation

As a grantee of the Arkansas Department of Health, Tobacco Free Marion County is precluded from lobbying and will not. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Best Practices for Tobacco Control focus on policy change, both voluntary and legislative, that serve to de-normalize tobacco prevalence. Our task is to educate the public of the wisdom, science, and ethics behind effective tobacco prevention.

Effective tobacco prevention involves: creating tobacco free space, significant tobacco tax increases, marketing reform reducing youth initiation, and support for cessation efforts.

Both locally and across the country, governments are following a growing trend challenging the subsidy our communities pay to allow the tobacco cartel to conduct a deadly business as usual. Take a deep breath, Arkansas

Arkansas, with the 6th highest adult smoking rate in the nation, has actually taken several proactive legislative steps. Primary is the voter mandated Act 1 0f 2000 that dedicated Arkansas share of the Master Settlement Agreement towards the public health. Arkansas is the only state in the nation to do this. In fact, states' use of MSA funds has become a tremendous victory for the tobacco cartel. Only 4 states spend in a year on prevention what the industry spends in a day marketing.

Act 134 of 2005 makes all hospital campuses smoke free. ACT 13 of 2006, Protecting Children from Secondhand Smoke in Cars, protects children restrained in a safety seat from secondhand smoke. As a primary offense an officer may pull a vehicle over for this alone. The fine is only $25 and may be forgiven if proof of joining a cessation class is provided. When Arkansas passed this law, only Puerto Rico had such legislation. Since Arkansas' law, state and local governments around the country and world have followed this lead with increased fines and ages.

2006 also saw the inception of the Arkansas Clean Indoor Air Act (ACIA)protecting people in public and in most workplaces. Smoke free air protects non-smokers, helps smokers quit, and is the example to young people that tobacco smoke is always dangerous. Regrettably the ACIA does not offer comprehensive protection from secondhand smoke for all workers. One of several exemptions offered allows any bar or restaurant to prohibit anyone under the age of 21 as a patron or employee. As if one lost the right to breathe at their 21st birthday.

Arkansas' tobacco tax is currently 38th lowest in the nation at $0.59. Efforts in 2007 to bring Arkansas more in line with the national average were unsuccessful. Tobacco tax advocates in 2003 were able to secure a $0.25 increase but only as tied to a 3% surcharge on everyone's income tax. Consensus in research shows that for every 10% increase in the cost of tobacco, a community can expect to see a 7% reduction among youth smoking and 4% overall tobacco use.

Act 846 of 2003 marked public health losses with passage of legislation eliminating required government signage ( 8x10 red block signs) where tobacco is sold. This left retailers depending on tobacco industry-provided signage like We Card and It's the Law. Research has shown these programs prevent illegal sales to minors at the same rate as having no sign at all. Additional setbacks have occurred in Arkansas Tobacco Control Board rule changes forgiving retailers for the first two sales to minors if they can demonstrate that their clerks had been trained. Clerks were given no exemptions from the law and already had to sign a Tobacco Server Awareness form. Additionally, it fell on the resources of the ATCB to provide the approved training rather than those who stand to profit from tobacco.

At the end of 2007, 59% of Americans enjoy smoke free air as the result of local or state measures. Traditionally the most successful challenge to tobacco has been waged at the local level. In Arkansas, five municipalities preceded the ACIA with stronger legislation. One real virtue of the ACIA protects local control with an anti-preemption clause. The pro-tobacco lobby is traditionally stronger among state legislatures and has used pre-emption to defeat local citizens' efforts to improve the public health. In 2007 Arkansas again distinguished itself with nominal protection for foster children from secondhand smoke, (something convicts in state prisons already enjoyed) and with the elimination of self-serve cigarette sales.

One note about Arkansas' legislative successes recognizes the efforts of career lawyers in the Attorney General's office that have kept and are keeping Arkansas committed to the spirit and letter of the Master Settlement Agreement. The MSA is a complex legal document the states were given a week to accept or reject in 1998. Arkansas has maintained integrity to the agreement both legislatively and actually.

As a budget issue, annually tobacco costs Arkansans $812 million in health care. $242 million of that is Medicaid. Tobacco taxes bring in only $139 million annually. Every Arkansas household every year carries an average additional $564 tax burden subsidizing the tobacco cartel. Effective tobacco prevention is the appropriate response to the leading cause of preventable death, disease, and health care expenditures. Claims that tobacco taxes unfairly target tobacco users fail to appreciate the actual subsidy for the people that sell tobacco. Reduced prevalence of tobacco decreases public health care cost while putting more disposable income into the pockets, and economy, of those who need it most.

The goals of the CDC Best Practices for effective tobacco prevention involve policy change creating tobacco free public spaces, significantly increased tobacco taxes, marketing reform reducing the industry's access to youth, and support for cessation for those able to overcome a nicotine addiction. Arkansas has great room for improvement in our clean air and tobacco free laws. Exemptions for unsafe work and public spaces are unjustifiable scientifically and ethically. Tobacco taxes are not sin taxes but use taxes for the public health. The overwhelming amount of tobacco advertising, promotion, and prevalence is an obscene example of a community in denial about the leading cause of preventable death and disease, the tobacco cartel.

A final note has to mention enforcement. Educational efforts have to be maintained with implementation of public health efforts. The advantage in creating public health policy has too often gone to the wealth and influence of the pro-tobacco lobby. Responsible public health policies prevent the spread of disease. Effective tobacco prevention is justifiable scientifically, ethically, and to protect the public health from a far more affluent, cunning, and shameless adversary.

In 2006 a Federal Court convicted the tobacco industry of racketeering and fraud under statutes usually reserved for organized crime. "One cannot help wondering whether this litigation was the best vehicle for attempting to hold defendants accountable for their indifference to the health of American citizens. In a democracy, it is the body elected by the people, namely Congress, that should step up to the plate and address national issues with such enormous economic, public health, commercial and social ramifications." Judge Gladys Kessler U.S. vs. Phillip Morris