Cigarette Sales Drop In Kentucky
A state economist is estimating that Kentucky smokers purchased 120 million fewer packs of cigarettes over the past two years.
Greg Harkenrider, deputy executive director of the Governor’s Office for Economic Analysis, said Friday that raising the state’s cigarette tax from 30 cents to 60 cents a pack in 2009 appears to have done what proponents had hoped – caused people to smoke less.
The American Heart Association’s advocacy director in Kentucky, Tonya Chang, said the decline in sales is welcome news but that the state, with one of the highest smoking rates in the nation, needs to do more to discourage people from lighting up.
Chang said she’d like to see Kentucky’s cigarette tax raised to the national average, which now stands at $1.45.
