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CNN Live Sunday

Anti-Smoking Lobbyist Hope For Higher Tobacco Tax

Aired February 08, 2004 - 16:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's more than just a bad, dirty habit, smoking is a strong and deadly addiction that costs the nation billions in healthcare. A new federal plan is designed to help smokers help themselves with every pack of cigarettes that they buy or don't buy.
Joining me to talk about this new smoking cessation plan is former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. Good to see you.

DAVID SATCHER, FRM. SURGEON GENERAL: You and three other former surgeons general are part of this plan and it's your intention to really kind of hit the smokers in the pocketbook with a $2 a pack tax and that would be a deterrent if you had a habit?

SATCHER: Our intention is to save lives. This is still the leading preventable cause of death in this country, and we spend $150 billion a year either treating the consequences of tobacco, or paying for lost productivity. So, we hope by raising the tax -- one, we'll have money to pay for smoking cessation programs, which we don't do a good job at now, but also encourage, especially teenagers, from beginning to smoke. The main goal here is to have money to fund the smoking cessation program.

WHITFIELD: But would it really discourage young people from lighting up for the first time? They aren't really feeling it in the pocketbook in just the $1, $2 a pack tax, whereas the regular smoker is.

SATCHER: Fortunately, we have good science here. For every 10 percent increase in tobacco attacks cost, there's a 7 percent decrease in teenage smoking and a 4 percent decrease in overall smoking. So, you're right it would have a great impact on teenagers, but the issue of either discouraging people from beginning to smoke or helping people who smoke to quit smoking is a big issue here, and I think they both would be benefited by this increase. We now charge 39 cents for excise tax, federal excise tax, this would raise it to $2, this would raise about $28 billion, and we use half of that to pay for the program.

WHITFIELD: And there's now going to be a nationwide kind of quit line, so to speak. And this is as simple as picking up the phone and getting counseling?

SATCHER: Right. Several states have these quit lines now. And basically what they do, is they provide counseling, but also access to medication. In other words, you can access people, physicians and others, who can help you, if you need medication to quit smoking. So what we hope to do is to help at least 5 million people quit smoking a year. Over time that will save at least 3 million lives in this country, and $75 billion in costs.

WHITFIELD: If the numbers are as it stands now, three out of four Americans are trying to quit, what's the ratio of those who are actually successfully going to be able to quit? Because trying to quit and successfully quitting are two very different things.

SATCHER: As you point out, 70 percent of people who smoke would like to quit. Yet every year, less than 5 percent of those people are able to quit. So, here you have a situation where people really want to quit, but need help. What we're saying is, since we now know that smoking cessation programs can be successful, we need to make those programs available to every American who would like to quit.

WHITFIELD: I can't let you go without asking you, today is national Black AIDS day. And we've seen the numbers, the disproportionate number of those who were most affected are black women. Why is that? That seems to be the fastest growing segment of the population with AIDS. And is enough being done in this country to help that?

SATCHER: Well, no, not enough is being done. And I think it relates to AIDS in black men. 75 percent of women who get infected with HIV get it from heterosexual sex, sex with men. And about 25 percent from injection of drug use.

So, you can't separate what's happening to our young women from what's happening to our young men. Especially the large numbers going into prisons and getting infected, coming back into the communities.

We really need a strong prevention program that needs to be in the prisons as well as in the communities. But we need testing programs. we need to make sure we test people and find out who's already infected. and I think that will also help to slow the spread of this virus.

WHITFIELD: Dr. David Satcher, thanks for joining us. Nice to meet you.

SATCHER: Delighted to be here.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 8, 2004 - 16:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's more than just a bad, dirty habit, smoking is a strong and deadly addiction that costs the nation billions in healthcare. A new federal plan is designed to help smokers help themselves with every pack of cigarettes that they buy or don't buy.
Joining me to talk about this new smoking cessation plan is former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. Good to see you.

DAVID SATCHER, FRM. SURGEON GENERAL: You and three other former surgeons general are part of this plan and it's your intention to really kind of hit the smokers in the pocketbook with a $2 a pack tax and that would be a deterrent if you had a habit?

SATCHER: Our intention is to save lives. This is still the leading preventable cause of death in this country, and we spend $150 billion a year either treating the consequences of tobacco, or paying for lost productivity. So, we hope by raising the tax -- one, we'll have money to pay for smoking cessation programs, which we don't do a good job at now, but also encourage, especially teenagers, from beginning to smoke. The main goal here is to have money to fund the smoking cessation program.

WHITFIELD: But would it really discourage young people from lighting up for the first time? They aren't really feeling it in the pocketbook in just the $1, $2 a pack tax, whereas the regular smoker is.

SATCHER: Fortunately, we have good science here. For every 10 percent increase in tobacco attacks cost, there's a 7 percent decrease in teenage smoking and a 4 percent decrease in overall smoking. So, you're right it would have a great impact on teenagers, but the issue of either discouraging people from beginning to smoke or helping people who smoke to quit smoking is a big issue here, and I think they both would be benefited by this increase. We now charge 39 cents for excise tax, federal excise tax, this would raise it to $2, this would raise about $28 billion, and we use half of that to pay for the program.

WHITFIELD: And there's now going to be a nationwide kind of quit line, so to speak. And this is as simple as picking up the phone and getting counseling?

SATCHER: Right. Several states have these quit lines now. And basically what they do, is they provide counseling, but also access to medication. In other words, you can access people, physicians and others, who can help you, if you need medication to quit smoking. So what we hope to do is to help at least 5 million people quit smoking a year. Over time that will save at least 3 million lives in this country, and $75 billion in costs.

WHITFIELD: If the numbers are as it stands now, three out of four Americans are trying to quit, what's the ratio of those who are actually successfully going to be able to quit? Because trying to quit and successfully quitting are two very different things.

SATCHER: As you point out, 70 percent of people who smoke would like to quit. Yet every year, less than 5 percent of those people are able to quit. So, here you have a situation where people really want to quit, but need help. What we're saying is, since we now know that smoking cessation programs can be successful, we need to make those programs available to every American who would like to quit.

WHITFIELD: I can't let you go without asking you, today is national Black AIDS day. And we've seen the numbers, the disproportionate number of those who were most affected are black women. Why is that? That seems to be the fastest growing segment of the population with AIDS. And is enough being done in this country to help that?

SATCHER: Well, no, not enough is being done. And I think it relates to AIDS in black men. 75 percent of women who get infected with HIV get it from heterosexual sex, sex with men. And about 25 percent from injection of drug use.

So, you can't separate what's happening to our young women from what's happening to our young men. Especially the large numbers going into prisons and getting infected, coming back into the communities.

We really need a strong prevention program that needs to be in the prisons as well as in the communities. But we need testing programs. we need to make sure we test people and find out who's already infected. and I think that will also help to slow the spread of this virus.

WHITFIELD: Dr. David Satcher, thanks for joining us. Nice to meet you.

SATCHER: Delighted to be here.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com