Pro: Amendment 3 provides for a healthier future

Tobacco use is the single-most preventable cause of death and disease in our society. Yet, Missouri has the second lowest tax in the nation and one of the highest smoking rates.

Nearly one-quarter of Missourians smoke, and it’s costing nearly 10,000 lives annually. Smoking is also the leading cause of heart disease, cancer, stroke and emphysema in our state.

Additionally, tobacco use costs Missouri $4.3 billion in health care and disability expenses every year. It adds up to $7.72 for every pack of cigarettes sold in Missouri, and this amounts to $760 for every man, woman and child in the state.

The solution to this problem is Amendment 3.

Missouri has three unacceptable realities: 1) one of the highest smoking rates in the country; 2) the second-lowest cigarette tax; and 3) politicians diverting tobacco master settlement money.

Amendment 3 will raise the tobacco tax from the current 17 cents per pack to 97 cents per pack, just below the national average. Revenue generated by Amendment 3 will be used for smoking cessation and prevention programs and to improve health care access for Missourians living below 200 percent of the poverty level.

We have learned a lot about what Missouri voters want, and accountability is one of their highest priorities. Amendment 3 provides strict audits and controls, and as a constitutional amendment, it will ensure that the legislature uses the funds the way Missouri voters intended.

Big Tobacco has pledged to spend millions of dollars to fight Amendment 3. You have probably already heard their “concerns” in TV ads, but will you believe Big Tobacco? Or will you trust the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and their volunteers who care about the health of Missouri?

The truth is in the facts: 17,000 Missouri youth will become addicted to cigarettes this year, and one in three will eventually die prematurely as a result. Amendment 3 will provide funding for smoking prevention programs that will prevent our children from ever starting.

Big Tobacco will tell you that we are doing just fine in Missouri with a children’s smoking rate of 21 percent, but we know that one in five is too many, and we can do better. The tobacco industry fears Amendment 3 because 90 percent of all new smokers are children under the age of 18.

Several politicians have come out against Amendment 3, but they are the very reason that Missouri has the second-lowest tobacco tax in the nation, and they are the ones who have spent the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement ($1 billion so far) on other projects.

Amendment 3 revenue will provide health care access for the most vulnerable Missourians including the preventive care that will help them avoid expensive emergency room visits and tobacco-related diseases.

Remember, with Amendment 3, if you don’t use tobacco, you don’t pay, and if you do use tobacco, Amendment 3 can help you quit.

Dr. Jim Blaine is a physician with Springfield Preventive Medicine Clinic. He is also a spokesperson for Committee for a Healthy Future, which supports Amendment 3.

For: Committee for a Healthy Future (a statewide coalition), American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and the Missouri Hospital Association

Against: Missourians Against Tax Abuse (a coalition of businesses and elected officials), Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, and tobacco companies including RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris[[In-content Ad]]