| Campaign wants smokers to take a hike ... in taxes By Neill Caldwell
United Methodist News Service  The United Methodist Churchs longstanding opposition to tobacco use is moving into a new phase, as the denominations social action agency puts its support behind a proposal aimed at reducing teen smoking nationwide. If successful, the campaign will force smokers to cough up more money for cigarettes in the form of higher state taxes. Officials with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society dont have to look far for evidence that such a strategy can work. In Maryland, a 1999 tax hike has been followed by a dramatic reduction in teen smoking. Its the kind of result that board officials would like to see repeated around the country. The Board of Church and Society was approached by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids following the churchs support in Maryland, where Bishop Felton Edwin May and the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference helped get a 30-cent tax increase per pack of cigarettes passed by the state legislature in 1999. That effort has become a real success story, said Lois Clinton of the Board of Church and Society. The Maryland Department of Education has released a study documenting a 30 percent decrease in smoking by the states 10th-graders (and a 16 percent decrease among adults) since the 1999 state tax increase. Maryland lawmakers are seeking an additional 70-cent tax increase per pack of cigarettes. Were very optimistic because of the Maryland study, Clinton said. There may be other factors that could also be responsible, but ... teen-agers dont have much money, and if a pack of cigarettes costs $5, maybe theyd rather spend that money on a new CD. Bishop May sees cigarette smoking as a spiritual issue as well. Tobacco addiction is first of all a spiritual and a pastoral matter, just as all self-destructive behavior is, including everything from heroin use to overeating to lack of a disciplined prayer life. All of us are addicts who are in the process of being delivered from our addictions, he said. The churchs primary task must be to proclaim and demonstrate the liberating love of Jesus Christ. As part of our holistic efforts to do that, we should work to increase tobacco taxes, especially as a way of deterring tobacco use by youth. The language of the Discipline is specific, May adds. It says that because of the overwhelming evidence that the use of tobacco is hazardous to our health, we recommend total abstinence from the use of tobacco, just as we support abstinence from alcohol and gambling. United Methodists work in Maryland has made a difference that can be duplicated in other states, said Vincent DeMarco, executive director of the Maryland Citizens Health Initiative. I can say categorically that the tax increase would not have passed without United Methodist support, he said. Tobacco companies oppose any move to increase taxes on their products. The United Methodist Church has the right to take any position it chooses on tobacco use, said John Singleton, director of public affairs for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. We believe the tax profiling of adult smokers by burdening them with additional excessive taxes is unfair. Between 1999 and 2001, state and federal governments collected more than $88 billion from the major tobacco companies in taxes and payments, Singleton said. The best way to reduce under-age smoking is through the enforcement of laws that make purchases of cigarettes by anyone under the age of 18 illegal, he said, as well as through programs that educate kids about the health risks associated with smoking. As the campaign gets under way, the Board of Church and Society will begin by working with existing anti-tobacco coalitions at the state level, providing leadership and technical and financial support, Clinton said. | 
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