Increase Cigar Tobacco Excise Tax
The Society advocates for expanding the definition of cigarettes to include small cigars/brown cigarettes.
A priority of the American Cancer Society is to reduce illness and deaths due to tobacco use. The Society will defend smoke-free policies, expand cessation benefits under all state mandated health insurance plans, increase state tobacco taxes, and advocate funding tobacco control programs at the CDC recommended level.
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the District. Little cigars are nothing more than brown cigarettes and their use causes the same negative health effects as cigarette use; heart and lung disease, cancer and pre-mature death. Like cigarettes they are wrapped in paper, but paper with a touch of tobacco which causes the brown color. Small cigars are the same size in circumference and length as cigarettes, most often have a filter, are sold in packages of 20, and are available in regular, menthol and some sweet flavors. Little cigars light and burn like cigarettes, and users inhale the smoke.
The current definition of cigarette used in the District does not include small cigars; the presence of even a miniscule amount of tobacco in the wrapper excludes a product from the definition, thus placing the small cigar/brown cigarette in a much lower tax category.
