Cigarette Taxes are the Best way to Cut Smoking, Scaring Big Tobacco

Health experts agree that raising taxes is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use. But many states — Missouri, Kentucky and Georgia among them — have not significantly increased their cigarette fees in decades, bowing to pressure from tobacco lobbyists and an ingrained antipathy among conservatives to raising taxes of any kind. As a result, America’s smokers are increasingly concentrated in states where cigarettes are cheap. The huge gap in tobacco prices is the result of a long-running war between tobacco companies and health advocates.