Maryland's 7,000-member medical society has launched a $300,000 radio and television ad campaign to generate public support for a $1 increase in the per-package cost of cigarettes.
"It's time we focus public debate on the most effective way to reduce both teen and adult smoking," said Dr. Albert Blumberg, a member of the state medical society and president of Smoke Free Maryland, a coalition working for passage of the $1 tax increase.
The ads, paid for by a grant from the American Medical Association, feature announcers reading the tobacco industry's ads. Some are already running.
The featured announcer, reacting incredulously to the tobacco industry's arguments against the tax increase, stops while on the air to question whether listeners believe the suggestion "that people will starve because they can't afford both cigarettes and food."
"I'd definitely pick food," says a second man in the ad.
The announcer then says higher cigarette prices will cut teen smoking and save Maryland billions in health care costs. "It's cigarettes that are killing people," he says, "and we can do something about it."
Blumberg said he hopes Marylanders will call legislators to express their support for the tax increase.
The tax increase bill -- called a public health bill by its supporters -- appears likely to be approved by the House Ways and Means Committee this week. Support is considered likely on the House floor as well.
Senate prospects for the measure are far less certain. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has said he sees no justification for a tax increase.
But Miller's political ally, Gov. Parris N. Glendening, has gone to great trouble this year to show he supports the increase. He has made some health care and school aid proposals contingent on its passage.
Also, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend does one of the radio ads. "Big tobacco doesn't like [the bill] but it's the right thing to do for all our children," she says.
The TV ads are expected to run throughout the state, appearing 50 times in all, through April.
In another development yesterday, officials announced Maryland will receive an extra $268 million as a reward for its aggressive pursuit of a tobacco lawsuit. The money is in addition to approximately $4.2 billion over 25 years allocated to the state by the November tobacco settlement.
A panel of three former attorneys general ranked Maryland sixth among the 46 states competing for the bonus money, to be paid to the state between 2008 and 2017.
"We would have liked to get a little bit more, but we'll have to be satisfied with this," said Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.
No settlement money will be paid until states representing 80 percent of the value of the settlement have resolved their lawsuits. That threshold is not likely to be reached for several months.
Sun staff writer Scott Shane contributed to this article.
Pub Date: 3/18/99