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State and federal revenues from tobacco consumed by minors
1Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester 01655, USA. joe.difranza@banyan.ummed.edu
Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to estimate the value of cigarettes consumed in 1997 by youths younger than 18 years.
Methods:
Price, population, and consumption data were used to compute conservative and comprehensive estimates, which were then averaged.
Results:
An estimated 3.76 million daily smokers aged 12 through 17 years consume an estimated 924 million packs of cigarettes per year, generating $222 million in federal tax revenues, $293 million in state tax revenues, and $480 million in tobacco company profits, and producing a retail value of $1.86 billion.
Conclusions:
The revenues from cigarettes smoked by youths could be used to enforce laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors.