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The case for doubling
tax per gram on RYOs in proportion to their
death risk
To reduce the death risk from tobacco use, tobacco product prices,
and therefore tobacco tax rates, need to be proportional to the
death risk of the product, instead of at the same fixed rate per gram of
35 cents per gram of tobacco content across all products. See www.endsmoking.org.nz/taxandrisk.htm
In the case of hand rolled tobacco, (often made from the same
tobacco with the same brand name, and therefore of similar toxicity when
smoked) the risk per gram is probably twice that of manufactured
cigarettes, because using half as much tobacco, smokers maintain the same
level of addiction score, suggesting that no less an amount of nicotine (and
tobacco smoke) is inhaled. The tax rate should therefore be raised from 12
cents to 24 cents per RYO cigarette, and from 35 cents a gram of loose
tobacco now, to 97 cents a gram of loose tobacco.
Hand rolled cigarettes contain half the tobacco,
and are half the price of manufactured cigarettes.
Switching to thinner-rolled, cheaper RYOs,
a smoker can stay addicted for
less than $4 a day. (Table 1) This may explain why a mere 20% price
increase in 2000, did not lower adult smoking prevalence for more than four
months; by switching to RYOs they could smoke
more cheaply than before.
In fact, as Table
1 shows, lower smoking prevalence, the tax rate per gram of hand rolled
tobacco would first need to double, before raising the overall tobacco
excise rate would raise the price of smoking RYOs.
Table 1. Smokers wishing to quit, by type of
cigarette smoked
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Manufactured cigarette smokers
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Hand rolled cigarette smokers
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Smokers
registered
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92
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37
|
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Average
cigarettes smoked per day
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18.3
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18.3
|
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Time
to first cigarette on waking
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70%
smoke within 30 minutes
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69%
within 30 minutes
|
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Fagerstrom addiction score (10=max)
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4.4
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4.4
|
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Tobacco
per cigarette
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0.73 g
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0.36
g*
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Tobacco
smoked per day per smoker
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13.4 g
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6.6 g
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Excise
per gram of tobacco 2005
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33
cents (35 cents in 2006)
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33 cents (35 cents in 2006)
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Excise
per cigarette 2005
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26 cents
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11.9
cents
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Price
per cigarette* 2005
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46
cents
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20.2 cents
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Excise
tax per smoker per day, 2005
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$4.76
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$2.31
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Price
per smoker per day, 2005.
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$8.42
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$3.92
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* http://www.ndp.govt.nz/tobacco/tobaccoreturns/2004/analysis/analysis-2004-tablesa-e.pdf
Source: Fraser
T, McRobbie H et al. Evaluation of Smokestop
an internet based smoking cessation programme. Auckland,
2006.
·
Table 1 shows
that RYO cigarettes were rolled to half the weight of a manufactured
cigarette, were smoked just as intensively, in judged by equal addiction
scores, and smoked at a daily cost 44% that of smoking manufactured
cigarettes.
·
If the tax only on
RYOs doubled, RYOs would
still cost less than manufactured cigarettes.
·
RYO tax should be increased 100% before the excise
rate for manufactured cigarettes is raised further.
For a permanent policy fix for RYOs see www.endsmoking.org.nz/ryosalesban.htm
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