{"id":429,"date":"2011-03-01T14:12:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T21:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theloungeisback.wordpress.com\/?p=429"},"modified":"2011-03-01T14:12:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T21:12:57","slug":"lance-armstrong-campaigns-for-higher-cigarette-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=429","title":{"rendered":"Lance Armstrong campaigns for higher cigarette tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Anti-smoking and anti-cancer advocate Lance Armstrong now appears to be moving full-time into cancer advocacy.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, Lance campaigned pretty strongly for a smoking ban in Texas. He didn’t win that round, but since he started speaking out, several large cities in Texas have imposed smoking bans, in particular Houston and Dallas.<\/p>\n

Now, Lance is campaigning in California<\/a> for a $1 a pack tax in that state which would be directed specifically toward cancer research. California has a really low cigarette tax (surprisingly) at 87 cents a pack, which is considerably below the national average of about $1.50 a pack. California a few years ago also voted down a ballot initiative that would’ve raised its cigarette tax — after Big Tobacco spent tens of millions defeating it. Big Tobacco will spend a lot of money fighting this initiative, which should be placed on the ballot sometime in 2012. Why? Studies show that a $1 a pack increase will drive the smoking rate down roughly 10 percent. There’s roughly 4 million smokers in California. Big Tobacco is looking at losing 400,000 customers, spending roughly $1,000 to $2,000 a year on cigarettes, if this passes. It’s in Big Tobacco’s interests to spend money to fight the measure.<\/p>\n

The measure would raise about $850 million a year. Hopefully, with the money directed specifically toward cancer research, California voters will do the right thing … and NOT listen to the propaganda that will be coming from Big Tobacco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anti-smoking and anti-cancer advocate Lance Armstrong now appears to be moving full-time into cancer advocacy. A couple of years ago, Lance campaigned pretty strongly for a smoking ban in Texas. He didn’t win that round, but since he started speaking out, several large cities in Texas have imposed smoking bans, in particular Houston and Dallas. … Continue reading Lance Armstrong campaigns for higher cigarette tax<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,69],"tags":[83,88,146],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-tobacco-campaign","category-tobacco-2","tag-anti-tobacco","tag-ballot-initiative","tag-lance-armstrong"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-6V","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3881,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3881","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":0},"title":"Cigarette tax proposals in California, Missouri, West Virginia","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Good news, bad news on the cigarette tax front. First the good news: California Proponents of raising California's cigarette tax from 87 cents a pack to $2.87 a pack say they have nearly twice as many signatures as needed to qualify the measure for the November 2016 ballot. They were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/la-me-pol-sac-tom-steyer-tobacco-tax-20160516.jpg?fit=650%2C366&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/la-me-pol-sac-tom-steyer-tobacco-tax-20160516.jpg?fit=650%2C366&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/la-me-pol-sac-tom-steyer-tobacco-tax-20160516.jpg?fit=650%2C366&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3696,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3696","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":1},"title":"Another attempt being made to raise cigarette taxes in California","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"You might not believe this, but cigarette taxes in California are among the lowest in the entire U.S. California's cigarette tax is only 87 cents a pack, which is barely half of the average $1.50 a pack state tax in the U.S. \u00a0California has the 35th-highest state tobacco tax rate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"golden gate bridge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/golden-gate-bridge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3933,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3933","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":2},"title":"Big Tobacco files litigation, raises $17 million to fight California tobacco tax","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Big Tobacco has already filed bullcrap litigation attempting to get a ballot measure removed from the November 2016 ballot that would raise the California cigarette tax by $2 a\u00a0pack.\u00a0And on top of that, the industry is planning to spend at least $17 million in order to defeat the measure. Big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3961,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3961","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":3},"title":"L.A. 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