Get cheap cigarettes
"We have no firm figures for Internet cigarette sales in the state
of Hawaii," said Deputy Attorney General Earl Hoke of the Tobacco
Enforcement Unit.
But 144 felony arrests have been made for the sale and distribution
of illegal, nontaxed cigarettes since January 2001, resulting in the
confiscation of property and $150,000 in fines.
Meanwhile, more than 40 million packs of legal cigarettes were sold
in Hawaii in 2000, according to the state Department of Taxation. That
number jumped to 61 million in 2001, just after a new tax law took effect
requiring licensed wholesalers and dealers to apply a stamp to the bottom
of every pack of cigarettes sold in the civilian sector and pay a "stamp
tax." Military bases continue to be exempt.
Cigarette sales dropped to 54 million packs in 2002 -- perhaps a result
of the decline in tourism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
on New York City and the Pentagon.
By the end of fiscal-year 2003, however, sales were back up to 61 million
packs. Buyers forked out $1.30 per pack in taxes, and generated $70
million that went to the state's general fund. The tax will jump to
$1.40 this summer -- seven cents per cigarette and the sixth-highest
tax in the country.
Indeed, the increase could encourage more people to seek cheaper cigarettes
online, or to seek cheaper cigarettes intended for overseas markets,
Hoke said.
"We're trying to deal with the problem," he said.
The state Attorney General's Office intends to introduce a bill this
legislative session that could stiffen the regulation and monitoring
of personal Internet tobacco sales. Combined with pending federal legislation,
the new laws could require reservation-based operations and others to
report their customers to the state attorney general and the tax office.
The exact extent of the bill to be introduced this session is unclear,
Hoke said, but it will be introduced as a part of Gov. Linda Lingle's
package and draw, to some degree, from its federal precedent, the 1949
Jenkins Act, which requires non-American Indian cigarette dealers to
report monthly to individual state tobacco tax administrations.
Native American tribes are exempt from the Jenkins Act because they
are independent nations and hold separate federal treaties. They do
not pay or collect state taxes.
Smoking is a major contributor to a wide array of ailments, including
hypertension and heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the state.
"We lose more than $500 million a year in health-care costs and
reduced productivity due to tobacco-related disease," said Julian
Lipsher of the state Department of Health.
For those reasons, the Health Department continues to promote health
education around the state and conduct 100 undercover operations each
month looking for merchants who sell tobacco products to minors. Violations
call for a $500 fine for the first offense, and a $500 to $2,000 fine
for subsequent offenses.
Minors who attempt to buy tobacco are fined $10 for the first offense.
Subsequent offenses can earn them a $50 fine and/or 48 to 72 hours of
community service.
Perhaps the most controversial effort to curb smoking comes in the form
of public-smoking ordinances. Each county has enacted its own strict
laws banning smoking in restaurants without bars and in workplaces.
The latest comes from the Big Island. Last summer, the Hawaii County
Council passed a law that takes effect Feb. 1 banning smoking at many
Big Island restaurants and other establishments.
Today, all counties include exemptions in their ordinances for bars
and nightclubs, particularly stand-alone bars not connected to a restaurant.
The new Hawaii County ordinance, for example, requires that restaurants
convert to nonsmoking establishments by Feb. 1, unless they contain
bar areas, where smoking will be permitted for the next six months.
Approximately one in five Hawaii adults smokes, according to an August
2003 state Department of Health report entitled "Smoking and Tobacco
Use in Hawaii."
That number has held relatively steady over the past decade. The report
states that 21 percent of Hawaii adults smoke -- 26 percent of men and
16 percent of women. Among ethnic groups, Native Hawaiians smoke the
most, at 33 percent.
More young people are taking up the habit, said Julian Lipsher, coordinator
of the Tobacco Prevention and Education program for the Department of
Health. Smoking rates for young people 18-24 jumped from 21 percent
to 30 percent between 1997 and 2002, he said.
"The tobacco industry is spending $8 billion this year to target
young adults," Lipsher said. "Obviously, it's working."
Hawaii is one of a few states to use part of its $1.24 billion share
of the $200 billion tobacco settlement to counteract Big Tobacco's advertising
blitz, or at least mitigate its effects. Indeed, the American Lung Association
recently gave Hawaii high marks for spending $9 million on education
and for its laws to curb underage smoking, smoking in public and smoking
in the workplace.
"We have the best clean-air, workplace and public-smoking laws
in the country," Lipsher said. "But that doesn't mean everything's
hunky-dory."