Name: Opinion: Measure 108’s vaping tax neither smart nor humane
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Opinion: Measure 108’s vaping tax neither smart nor humane

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NEW!Jacob GrierGrier is a freelance writer in Portland and the author of The Rediscovery of Tobacco: Smoking, Vaping, and the Creative Destruction of the Cigarette.If there were a measure on the Oregon ballot to raise taxes on products that help people quit smoking, such as nicotine patches and gums, there would be no doubt that this would be bad for public health. Oregon’s Measure 108, which would impose substantial new taxes on vaping products, is misguided for precisely the same reason. By raising the cost of the most effective smoking cessation devices ever invented, it will unintentionally perpetuate cigarette smoking.This may sound counterintuitive, but there’s substantial evidence to back it up. An updated a prestigious non-profit organization that assesses the effectiveness of various health interventions, concluded this month that there is now “moderate-certainty evidence” that e-cigarettes are actually more effective than patches and gums at helping people quit smoking.Alarmist scare stories have created a misperception that vaping is as dangerous as smoking, but this belief is damagingly false. Research published in 2018 in the projects that widespread replacement of cigarettes with e-cigarettes could prevent between 1.6 million and 6.6 million premature deaths in the United States before the end of the century.We know that it would be beneficial for smokers to switch to vaping, and we also know that taxes on e-cigarettes discourage them from doing so. A working paper from the examined what happened when Minnesota imposed a similar tax on vapor products. Economists estimated that the tax deterred more than 30,000 Minnesota adults from quitting smoking, according to the 2019 study.Oregon should not make the same mistake. Sensible policy would tax products proportionally to their capacity for harm, using higher costs on more dangerous products like cigarettes to nudge consumers to lower-risk alternatives. By packaging a substantial tax on vapor products into the proposal, Measure 108 subverts the intended purpose of raising taxes on combustible tobacco.Of course, health is not the only consideration. We should also consider economic wellbeing. Because smokers are disproportionately poor, cigarette taxes are highly regressive. And because smoking is addictive, it’s extremely difficult for them to avoid the tax. Measure 108 would impose the highest cigarette excise taxes in the region, with the costs falling on some of society’s least well-off in the midst of a brutal recession.The rise of youth vaping is a reasonable concern, but increasing enforcement would address this without undermining the goal of encouraging adult smokers to switch. It’s also worth noting that youth vaping in the U.S. is already in significant decline from its 2019 peak. And despite years of unsubstantiated warnings about vaping as a gateway to smoking, youth cigarette smoking – a far more dangerous behavior – has fallen by around 80% in the past decade.Supporters of 108 have carried out a misleading, fear-driven campaign that stigmatizes nicotine use and pushes an abstinence-only agenda. We should not expect this to work any better for nicotine than it has for sex, alcohol, or other drugs. The underreported truth is that harm reduction has tremendous potential to save the lives of smokers, that both youth and adult smoking rates are falling to the lowest levels in modern history, and that products like e-cigarettes are helping to make the deadly conventional cigarette obsolete.In short, Measure 108 would impose a punitive tax on low-income smokers at a time when they can least afford it, while simultaneously penalizing them for attempting to switch to a much safer alternative that could save their lives. It is neither smart nor humane, and Oregonians should vote against it.Share your opinionSubmit your essay of 500-700 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!Jacob GrierGrier is a freelance writer in Portland and the author of The Rediscovery of Tobacco: Smoking, Vaping, and the Creative Destruction of the Cigarette.If there were a measure on the Oregon ballot to raise taxes on products that help people quit smoking, such as nicotine patches and gums, there would be no doubt that this would be bad for public health. Oregon’s Measure 108, which would impose substantial new taxes on vaping products, is misguided for precisely the same reason. By raising the cost of the most effective smoking cessation devices ever invented, it will...

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Opinion: Measure 108’s vaping tax neither smart nor humane

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