Tobacco taxes

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says West Virginia should quadruple spending on programs aimed at reducing smoking and smokeless tobacco use.

In a new report, the CDC recommends that West Virginia spend $27.8 million on anti-smoking efforts, up from $6.6 million last year. ...

House Health and Human Resources Chairman Don Perdue agrees that the state should spend more on anti-smoking programs. The Wayne County Democrat says he would favor raising tobacco taxes, but only if the money was spent to reduce tobacco consumption.

I love that last clause: "... but only if the money was spent to reduce tobacco consumption."

Sin taxes and gambling are so attractive because they target the -- how else to put it -- undesirable activities that so many of us engage in. But rather than using those revenue streams to combat the original problem and eventually put them out of business, politicians instead use them for other purposes and come to rely on them.

What would West Virginia government do if we made a significant dent in tobacco and alcohol use? (Before anyone says anything, I'm not condemning alcohol itself, but who wouldn't say that society as a whole consumes too much of it? Likewise, I don't what level of gambling is good and what is bad. But who says we need more, other than the people who make money from it?).