Indiana bill on tobacco taxes: Less harm, less tax

Indiana’s Republican governor (and potential presidential candidate) Mitch Daniels is expected to sign an omnibus bill that includes tobacco harm reduction language specifically stipulating that tobacco taxes reflect the potential for adverse health effects posed by the product. Notably, the bill establishes that moist snuff (known as snus), a smokeless tobacco product, should be taxed at a lower rate than other tobacco products because it poses fewer health risks. ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan applauds the new bill, noting that the concept of tobacco taxes reflecting variable risk is not widely understood by politicians and activists. This, however, is “the type of public health policy that ACSH endorses day-in and day-out,” she says. ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross agrees: “Anyone who’s studied the science of snus knows that it has a lower health risk. Nevertheless, politicians generally go with the easy answer: ‘all tobacco products are equally bad.’ We applaud the Indiana General Assembly for having the insight and courage to distinguish the differences among tobacco products, and we hope that other states (and the federal government) follow suit.”