Responsible stores would take down those tobacco advertisements
What influences our children? Advertisements. Every day we pass by advertisements, selling everything from milk to tobacco. While I don’t mind my school age child drinking milk, I do mind her using tobacco. People who are addicted to tobacco don’t need advertisements to infl uence them into buying tobacco. So who are the advertisements aimed at? Who are tobacco vendors trying to infl uence? Since thousands of people die from tobacco-related illness yearly, tobacco companies must replace their customers. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 90 percent of people start using tobacco before their 18th birthday. So, the advertisements aren’t aimed at adults, even though tobacco companies may say they are. As a mother, this realization bothers me. I don’t want my child manipulated into thinking smoking is glamorous or healthy. I want my child to know the cold, hard truth. So how do we protect our youth? The tobacco companies are not going to stop making signs that entice the youth. They spend millions on marketing, to keep sales up as their customers die. It’s the responsibility of our good neighbors, the business owner to take the initiative. The business owner, whether a small mom-and-pop shop or a store in a mega-chain, has the responsibility to protect our youth and take down or at least decrease the advertisements. While this may cost stores money, not doing it will lead to death and illness. Isn’t protecting young ones more important than feeding the corporate tobacco giants? Advertising plays a role in our culture. Advertising makes smoking look glamorous and appeals to kids that want to be cool. Smoking advertisements make the individual look cool and sexy. Stores across the state have decided to eliminate, decrease or rearrange their tobacco advertising. I would like to thank these stores for caring for kids. In my ideal world, tobacco would be gone. But short of that ideal, I would like to see stores take down their tobacco advertisements so that my child can walk through stores and not be manipulated. ANGIE DRESSER Saranac The writer is a member of Project Action Tobacco Free Coalition for Hamilton County.
I like the beer and liquor ads on the billboards myself......or how about the viagra commercials or the antidepressant commercials......the list is endless.....but, I guess everyone needs a banner to wave......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
As I race toward 70 years on this earth, I grow weary of all the do-gooders. People have two faces — one when it does not affect them directly and one when it does. In her May 20 letter [“Responsible stores would take down those tobacco advertisements”], Ms. Angie Dresser states that responsible stores should remove tobacco advertisements. She doesn’t want her child manipulated. She further states that business owners have the responsibility to protect our youth. In my younger days, it was the parent who protected the child and taught them good and bad — not shop owners. She finally states she would like to see all stores take down tobacco advertisements. One must ask what face she is wearing. Is she serious, or a do-gooder? Would she be willing to give up her life if it meant the end of tobacco use? If not, she is nothing more than another person trying to force her opinions on others. JOSEPH GIBSON Ballston Lake
Think kids don’t notice? Think again. It’s a fact: Kids today are more likely to be influenced by cigarette advertising than by peer pressure. The tobacco companies know this, and they are using it to their advantage. That’s why we are launching this initiative to reduce tobacco ads in retail stores all across our region. Facts about advertising: Kids are more than twice as likely as adults to notice and remember retail tobacco advertising. Tobacco companies spend more than $13 billion on retail advertising and promotion — a successful strategy for hooking young smokers. Parents should be mad about the tobacco industry’s multibillion-dollar efforts to hook their children. Parents can fight back and can find out how at http://www.GetMadAboutAds.org. JODI ABBOTT Fonda The writer is a Montgomery County Public Health/Community Health Educator and Project Action member.
Gees Jodi, should the parents be just as mad at the beer companies that spend even MORE than the tobacco industry to glamorize a Bub, a Coors, a Miller etc.....? Beer commercials are integrated in every part of our social life. From sports, to picnics, to holidays to food. Kind of like it's a 'family thing' to do.
Oh but that's ok, since there are addiction programs to handle that. Ya know the rehab programs that we, the taxpayers pay for?
And there are still those wonderful programs out there for 'Mother's against drunk drivers'.
Guess there just hasn't been enough kids killed by drunk drivers or kids driving drunk and killing themselves to warrant a campaign against alcohol ads in magazines, tv commercials, movies, tv shows stores and bill boards, huh?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
After 30 years of smoking and being barraged with the stop-smoking media campaigns and endless tax increases on cigarettes, I called the NYQUITS hotline May 15. During the 20-plus-minute phone call to NYQUITS, I was asked questions about my race, and other nonsmokingrelated questions, by a very nice young lady who was only doing her job. I informed her that I had set a target date of May 23 to stop and chose the patch as an aid in this much-needed, but not easy, endeavor. The delivery was supposed to arrive by DHL. It’s now May 25, Memorial Day weekend, and there has been no sign of these patches or a DHL truck. We are home almost constantly due to being on fi xed incomes, so we couldn’t have missed them. At least the commercials look good on television every 15 minutes or so. BILL GUTOWSKI Amsterdam
I don't understand how the NYS government chose to raise the tax on cigarettes by $1.25 to fund health care and yet have an agency encouraging smokers to quit.
Are they assuming that people will continue to smoke which will pay for taxpaid health care or are they assuming that people will quit through the NYQUIT's program?
As usual this is the NYS smoke and mirrors plan to fool us into thinking that the cigarette tax is funding health care when in fact our taxes are going to fund it as the residents will either quit smoking or by black market cigarette and pay no NYS tax.
What influences our children? Us. I’m a smoker, and I started really young. What made me start? Angelina Jolie? Joe Camel? No. Most likely, it was my parents being smokers. Are you a smoker? If not, good choice for your children and yourself. Why should tobacco be the only business whose advertisements are protested against daily, and who must contribute to their own demise? Philip Morris has pledged $100 million each year for antismoking advertisements directed toward teenagers. In 1998, Philip Morris and other tobacco companies had to pay $206 billion in settlements. In a capitalist democracy, this is absurdity. Did companies using CFCs [chlorofluorocarbons] have billion-dollar settlements? Does alcohol? Anheuser-Busch spends money advertising responsible drinking, which has no objective scale. What influences our children? Their parents. If you have a close relationship with your kids, then the faceless, nameless, big bad tobacco monster won’t be able to get them. Responsible parents should teach their kids the truth; it’s their job to keep their children safe. Responsible stores should keep up whatever advertisements they deem fi t; it is their job to keep a profit. AMELIA VREELAND Schenectady
NEW YORK STATE Cigarette tax increase worries convenience store owners BY JOE MAHER Gazette Reporter
The next three to six months will be critical for mom-and-pop convenience stores dealing with higher cigarette taxes and slumping sales. Starting Tuesday, the cost of a pack of cigarettes will jump $1.25 because the state tax is increasing from $1.50 per pack to $2.75 per pack. “The timing is as bad as it can possibly be,” James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, said Friday. People who smoke and don’t quit to protest the higher taxes will fi nd cheaper sources for their cigarettes, including Indian reservations and border states with significantly lower taxes, he said. “The primary concern all along for us has been the reservation tax evasion and how that is going to dramatically affect sales in convenience stores,” Calvin said. Calvin said the group thinks the average store will lose 30 percent of its sales volume after the tax hike goes into effect. The number will vary depending on the proximity of the store to border states or reservations. “But everybody is going to lose a lot of cigarette sales,” he said, sales that retailers depend on to generate traffic in their stores and, consequently, additional purchases. “I’m very fearful what’s going to happen to mom-and-pop convenience stores in the next three to six months,” he said. “It’s going to be a disaster.” Those stores are already hurting from lagging sales, according to shop owners. TAX-FREE QUANDARY A Department of Health survey found half of New Yorkers who smoke admit to buying tax-free cigarettes. An economic study conducted on behalf of the convenience store association estimated that tax evasion from reservation sales amounts to $1.6 million per day. The state takes in just under $1 billion a year in cigarette taxes; the study estimated that another $1 billion a year was lost to reservation and black-market sales. But Tom Bergin, a spokesman for the state Department of Taxation and Finance, said there’s no real way to know. “Without disparaging certain groups or individuals, we’ve never been able to determine how much is lost in situations like this,” he said. “Over the years, people have taken plenty of guesses but there’s really no way to know it.” He said officials do know that criminal trafficking will increase as a result of the tax increase. The state arrests hundreds of people a year for transporting or selling untaxed cigarettes. “Our response is to go after those traffickers very aggressively. We always work closely with local law enforcement authorities,” he said. The state has yet to enforce a law, which dates to the Pataki administration, that requires reservations to report cigarette sales and to pay taxes. But the Indians contend that they’re sovereign nations and not subject to state authorities. “Everyone is in agreement this is a difficult issue to resolve,” Bergin said. “I think the administration is doing the best it can to resolve that issue.” LOCAL SALES WOES Conventional retailers are bracing for a downturn in cigarette sales once the new taxes take effect. “It will have an impact on our business,” Gary Cunningham, a category manager for the Saratoga Springs-based Stewart’s chain, said. “There’s a lot of questions. Will they quit? Will they find other ways to buy? We have a lot of questions,” he said. Stewart’s has 325 shops, 10 of which are in Vermont. Cunningham said there is “an interesting border phenomenon” between New York and Vermont. A couple of years ago, Vermont’s cigarette tax was significantly lower and New Yorkers made it a point to buy in Vermont. Then it flip-flopped when Vermont instituted a tax higher than New York’s “and now it’s going back the other way,” he said. Avinash Moudgil, owner of the MUD Deli in downtown Gloversville, said rising taxes and slumping sales can be a lethal combination for a small business. “You have to find some other way to make a living,” said Moudgil, who has run the business for seven years. “Bills are going higher and higher, taxes are going higher and higher. Where do you get the money?” He said people haven’t really been stocking up in advance of the new tax but expects business will pick up, a sentiment echoed by Eddy Abraham of Naif’s Grocery, also in Gloversville, and by Cunningham. Abraham said he ordered extra cigarettes in anticipation of the tax hike. “I think people are going to buy a lot of them between now and Tuesday,” he said Friday afternoon. He said the profit margin on cigarettes is a relatively low 7 percent, and he thinks the government is unfairly targeting smokers. “You’re hitting a small percentage of the population. As a store owner I think it’s wrong and as a consumer I think it’s wrong,” Abraham said. QUITTERS Tony Brown, who smokes between a half-pack and a pack of cigarettes a day, agreed. “I think it’s robbery, to tell you the truth. Come on. I know a bunch of people, that’s all they do, they go to the reservation to buy cigarettes,” he said. Other smokers said the price hike could mean quitting time. “I’m really seriously considering quitting with this buck and a quarter [increase],” Heidi Meher said after forking over $10 for two packs of Marlboro Lights at Naif’s Friday. “They’ve taken everything else away.” Linda Cunningham stopped by the store to pick up the paper and said she already gave up smoking, tired of high prices and concerned about her health. “I quit a year ago February,” she said. She’s not alone. Claire Pospisil, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department, said there is a downward trend among people who smoke. Figures from 2007 show 18 percent of New Yorkers, or 2.7 million adults, smoke. The percentage of high-school students who smoke stood at 13.8 percent, down from 32.9 percent in 1997. Smoking claims the lives of 25,500 New Yorkers every year, despite the fact that the state spends $83 million a year on “tobacco control.” “We do tons of things,” Pospisil said. “We fund 19 tobacco control cessation centers throughout the state. They basically work with people to help them stop smoking. We run the Quit Line and we expect additional calls to that.” DOH also supported the Clean Indoor Air Act, which bans smoking in most indoor public places, and launched a media campaign to encourage doctors to talk to patients about the dangers of smoking. And DOH Commissioner Dr. Richard F. Daines has asked the federal Food and Drug Administration to allow nicotine gum to be sold in small quantities at convenience stores, on display right next to the smokes. People who call the state’s Quit Line, 1-866-NYQUITS, can talk to a counselor and formulate a plan to improve the odds of successfully kicking the habit. They can also obtain a two-week supply of nicotine gum or patches for free. “We know it’s very difficult for people to quit and we’re doing everything that we can to provide smokers with the resources they need. And raising the price of cigarettes is one of the most effective ways to get people to quit,” Pospisil said. “We expect that with the increase in the cigarette tax that 243,000 New York kids will not start smoking,” she said. “Our goal is to have one million fewer smokers by 2010.”
Well that's NYS for ya. They tax small businesses right out of business!!!!!! Don't ya just love the liberals?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Well that's NYS for ya. They tax small businesses right out of business!!!!!! Don't ya just love the liberals?
Many statistics can show that there are " positive effects " of smoking - early death- which actually saves the government money. Now would that be a liberal or conservative perspective ?
Many statistics can show that there are " positive effects " of smoking - early death- which actually saves the government money. Now would that be a liberal or conservative perspective ?
Neither! It is plain socialism and control and more rights being taken away....plain and simple!!
If they were really concerned about the health and safety of our nation, Universal Health care would not be open for discussion. They would revise laws to get the gangs off the streets and behind bars. They would close the borders of this country to stop illegals from entering. They would hang every bad cop out to dry. They would really be putting an effort forth on putting drug DEALERS behind bars for a very very long time. etc....Then cigarette smoking would be nothing more than a sand pebble on the beach.
They have bigger fish to fry....so they should get on with it!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
CAPITOL Cigarette tax increases by $1.25 per pack today BY VALERIE BAUMAN The Associated Press
New Yorkers start paying the highest cigarette taxes in the nation today with the latest $1.25 spike per pack that officials expect to bring in $265 million a year. Convenience stores in New York and the smokers who will be pay the price are angry about the change, but health officials hail the tax increase as a success. Officials said cigarette taxes will raise a total of $1.3 billion for the state budget in fiscal year 2008-2009, including the new tax. “Isn’t that something — to say that I’m excited about a tax increase? But I am,” said Dr. Richard Daines, the New York health commissioner. “This is a public health victory. We know one of the really effective tools to get people off of their nicotine addiction is to the raise the price.” Smokers will be paying $2.75 per pack in state taxes. The average price of a pack of cigarettes is currently $5.82 statewide, and about $8 a pack in New York City, Daines said. An estimated 140,000 New Yorkers will stop smoking with this tax increase, Daines said. That number is based on prior tax increases and cigarette consumption. “Youth are particularly sensitive to the price of cigarettes, so this price increase is expected to prevent 243,000 youth from smoking,” Daines said. Daines said the tax increase is just one part of an $83 million anti-smoking effort that includes advertising and public service announcements, attempts to get tobacco consumption out of youth rated movies and cessation centers around the state. “What we really want people to do is not to pay the price, but to stop smoking,” he said. Audrey Silk, who heads NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment said it’s ridiculous to expect smokers to quit just because the price is climbing. She switched to rolling her own cigarettes since the last New York City tax increase and suggests other smokers will find similar ways to satisfy nicotine cravings. “No product has a tax at this rate on it,” Silk said. “If there was, there would be screaming, but since we’ve been beaten into submission and nobody listens to us, what else is there to do? It’s unjustifiable and you turn to alternatives, and any consumer group would do the same.” Convenience stores, which historically count on cigarette sales, have also objected to the tax, saying it will drive smokers — and dollars — elsewhere. “The tax increase is only going to feed that epidemic,” said Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores. “More and more smokers in New York state are going to abandon our stores that have to charge the tax and shift their purchases to places that don’t charge the tax, most notably Native American stores, the Internet and bootleggers.”
Neither! It is plain socialism and control and more rights being taken away....plain and simple!!
If they were really concerned about the health and safety of our nation, Universal Health care would not be open for discussion. They would revise laws to get the gangs off the streets and behind bars. They would close the borders of this country to stop illegals from entering. They would hang every bad cop out to dry. They would really be putting an effort forth on putting drug DEALERS behind bars for a very very long time. etc....Then cigarette smoking would be nothing more than a sand pebble on the beach.
They have bigger fish to fry....so they should get on with it!
For me it is a SOCIAL ISSUE - - blaming a political party for the cause of a personal craving is crazy-
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