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Matt Wellington is the associate director of Maine Public Health Association.
Gov. Janet Mills and the Maine Legislature just increased Maine’s tobacco tax, a long overdue step that I believe will protect Maine kids from the predatory practices of the tobacco industry. For too long, tobacco companies have targeted young people and communities under stress with low prices and flashy marketing to hook users on their highly addictive and deadly products.
Tobacco use can set up kids for a potentially life-long struggle with addiction. Tobacco-related disease takes our loved ones too soon and tobacco use damages our economy by making Maine’s workforce less healthy and productive. Raising the tobacco tax is a proven strategy for reducing youth tobacco use and encouraging current smokers to quit.
Now that Maine’s elected officials have stepped up, it’s time for our federal policymakers to stand up for public health as well.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH), a national program that helps bolster states’ efforts to prevent and reduce tobacco use, is on the chopping block under the Trump Administration. For years, Congress has allocated funding to the office to protect kids from tobacco addiction and help current tobacco users to quit.
This is sound public health policy — helping people live longer, healthier, and more productive lives — and is a smart investment: by preventing costly tobacco-caused diseases in the future, we save taxpayers billions of dollars. That’s not an exaggeration. Every year, American taxpayers spend more than $241 billion in direct healthcare costs attributable to tobacco use. In Maine, taxpayers pay $942 million in direct health care costs ($281 million in Medicaid alone), and forfeit an additional $1.5 billion in lost productivity — all because of tobacco use.
OSH delivers lifesaving services. In 2024 alone, states received between $343,000 and $2.3 million to support Quitlines, cessation medications, and tobacco prevention programming. It is no exaggeration to say these programs save lives. Closing the Office on Smoking and Health will undo decades of progress and put countless lives at risk; it would certainly not make America healthy — again or otherwise.
Two out of three adult smokers want to quit smoking, and about half of them have made quit attempts. But when you’re dealing with one of the most addictive substances on earth, quitting is easier said than done and people need all of the support and resources they can get to do it effectively. That’s why funding from OSH, for supports like free cessation medications and programs, is so important.
OSH funding also supports one of the most effective public health initiatives in modern history, “Tips from Former Smokers” campaign. Between 2012 and 2018, that campaign helped more than 1 million Americans quit smoking and saved an estimated $7.3 billion in healthcare costs. With every airing, websites flood with traffic and Quitline calls surge. If this campaign disappears, so too will the motivation and support that have helped 1 million Americans quit tobacco.
Most people start using tobacco before they turn 18 years old; if someone makes it into their twenties without trying a tobacco product, then they likely never will. That’s why preventing youth tobacco use is essential for supporting the health of all Americans, saving taxpayers money and ensuring our military readiness. The stakes could not be higher, especially here in Maine where we have a higher-than-average smoking rate and the highest overall cancer rate in New England.
Sen. Susan Collins has been a long-time supporter of efforts to protect kids from tobacco, and we are counting on her to fight to preserve CDC’s tobacco program. Continued funding for this work will benefit kids and taxpayers, Maine and the nation. Maine’s state leaders stepped up this session; we hope our members of Congress do too.