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The Detroit News

Cigarette tax increases nudges
smokers to quit

By Sarah A. Webster
The Detroit News
(Edited & Reprinted)

The lights in the room are dim, and more than 40 people are quietly sitting in rows of chairs with their eyes closed, heads hanging down. A petite, red-haired woman tells the group it will get increasingly relaxed as she counts down “10, 9, 8, 7 –“

“Now, you are deeply relaxed,” hypnotist Rena Greenberg says.

Men and women in the crowd grip a piece of wire and swing a small metal pendulum in front of their face. With a microphone in hand and soft music in the background, Greenberg makes suggestions to their subconscious.

“I am a permanent non-smoker, absolutely committed to succeed,” she says with conviction.

The participants in the Wellness Seminars, Inc. session, held at Mission Health Medical Center, said they wanted to quit smoking to improve their health. Many said they were tired of the expense, between $1,300 to $2,700 a year for most smokers.

But this class was held the night before Michigan’s 50-cent tax increase took effect on Thursday, and a handful of people said the increase gave them a nudge to quit again. Nearly everyone in the group had tried earlier to quit without success.

Cigarette taxes are an effective tool to prevent and curb smoking, the American Lung Association says.

That benefits all state taxpayers, who save money on government-funded health programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, even when there are small drops in the percentage of smokers.

Michigan’s cigarette tax is now $1.25 a pack, the fifth highest in the nation. A pack of generic cigarettes can cost about $2.50, but premium brands are more than $5 a pack in some locations. Smoker’s say that can be a strong deterrent.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Dean Ditto of South Lyon said of the tax boost.

He has been smoking for 14 years and quit briefly before turning to hypnosis. “It’s getting ridiculously expensive.”

Greenberg, whose hypnosis costs $59, said she is seeing a larger number of participants than she usually does in the summertime.

The American Lung Association’s Freedom From Smoking Online Program has seen a spike in people signing up for the program since mid-July when the Michigan tax passed, spokeswoman Susan Burns said. She said there was a 65% increase in enrollment in the last half of July.