Tobacco controls experts from across the state gathered with U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass in Los Angeles this Saturday to announce their support for the California Cancer Control Act (CCRA). The CCRA qualified for the June 2012
ballot after its supporting coalitions submitted over 600,000 voter signatures. If
passed by voters, the CCRA will add $1.00 to each pack of cigarettes
sold in California and generate over $855 million in its first year. It
would provide more than $500 million a year to find new
ways to detect, treat, prevent, and cure cancer and other
tobacco-related illnesses. It would also provide over $156 million
dollars for California's underfunded tobacco control and prevention
program.
Congresswoman
Karen Bass addressed the bleak federal funding horizon for cancer
research and stated how important it is that California advance the
cancer research agenda through this important ballot measure. Bass
further stated that cancer touches the lives of all Californians and
that the CCRA is a giant step in the right direction.
Tobacco
control experts representing California's communities of color
stressed the desperate need that their communities have for increased
tobacco control and prevention programs.
Though
significant public health gains have been made through California's
Tobacco Control Program, not all communities have benefited equally.
Tobacco-related disparities continue to disproportionately drain the
health, resources and vitality of California's ethnic and LGBT
communities. "This tobacco tax is actually an investment
in the health of our communities and if passed it will save California
taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in healthcare costs," stated
Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati.
Historically,
the tobacco industry has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into
California to defeat any public health attempt to increase cigarette
excise taxes. A tobacco industry strategy has been to discount the
public health benefits to low income and minority communities by
framing increased cigarette taxes as unfair and regressive.
This rhetoric is repeated by tobacco industry front groups. Californians
of Color for the CCRA is here to emphatically debunk this distortion.
"Poor and low-income smokers can be very price sensitive and that is
a good thing," states Dr. Phillip Gardiner. "Studies have
conclusively shown that increasing cigarette prices motivates many
low-income smokers to quit; and through increased revenue, those who
don't quit will have access to more programs and services to assist
them in quitting. Culturally relevant tobacco prevention programs also
empower communities to protect their young from the tobacco industry.
A
town hall meeting convened by the African American Tobacco Control
Leadership Council and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), "A Community Under
Siege: The State of Black California and Tobacco Use," followed the
CCRA Press Conference.
