State Cigarette Excise Tax

2014 is the 50th anniversary of the historic 1964 Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health, which linked smoking to lung cancer and other deadly diseases for the first time.

A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that about 8 million lives have been saved through tobacco control efforts since 1964, including 800,000 lung cancer deaths between 1975 and 2000.

Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the U.S., killing over 1,200 people per day.

Secondhand smoke kills almost 50,000 people each year.

28 states and Washington DC have passed laws prohibiting smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars.

New York has the highest cigarette tax in the country at $4.35 per pack.

Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax in the country at 17 cents per pack.

The average of all state plus the District of Columbia cigarette taxes is $1.53 per pack.

Alaska and North Dakota are the only two states that fund their tobacco control programs at or above the CDC-recommended level (in Fiscal Year 2014).

Massachusetts and Minnesota approved cigarette tax increases large enough to impact public health in 2013.

2 states – Indiana and Massachusetts – offer a comprehensive cessation benefit to tobacco users on Medicaid.

2 states – Alabama and Georgia – offer virtually no help with quitting to most tobacco users on Medicaid.

In 2009, the American Lung Association played a key role in the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products.

The American Lung Association played a key role in airplanes becoming smokefree in the 1990s.

40 states and Washington DC spend less than half of what the CDC recommends on their state tobacco prevention programs.

States spend less than two cents of every dollar they get in tobacco-related revenue to fight tobacco use.

Each day, almost 3,900 kids under 18 try their first cigarette and more than 1,000 kids become new, regular smokers.

Each day, 3,000 kids try their first cigar.

Smoking costs the U.S. economy $263 million in direct health care costs and $266 million in lost productivity each day.

The five largest cigarette companies spent over $22.9 million dollars a day marketing their products in 2011.

The American Lung Association has been fighting smoking and tobacco use since the 1950s.

Smoking rates for Medicaid recipients are over 50 percent higher than the general population.

Only 4 states – Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming – fund their quitlines at or above CDC-recommended levels.

A 2013 study of California’s tobacco prevention program shows that the state saved $55 in healthcare costs for every $1 invested from 1989 to 2008.

A 2012 study of Massachusetts’ comprehensive Medicaid quit smoking benefit found that Massachusetts saved $3 for every $1 spent helping smokers quit in just over a year.