New York City Claims Drop in Number of Smokers

VOA News ^ | 12 May 2004

[Know your rights]

A city-sponsored survey says the number of adult smokers in New York City fell by more than 100,000 between 2002 and 2003. Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said the drop - which amounts to 11 percent - is the steepest decline of smokers seen anywhere.

Telephone surveys found that 19.3 percent of adults smoked in 2003, down from 21.6 percent in 2002. Overall cigarette consumption declined by 13 percent, suggesting that even those who continue to smoke are now smoking less.

Health officials credit the decline to a 2002 tax increase on cigarettes, which raised the tax from eight cents per pack to $1.50 per pack. A year later, New York City banned smoking in bars, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began an aggressive anti-smoking campaign, which included programs helping people to quit.

[Just another Joe]

Bloominidiot Puff!

Of course smoking in NY City has gone down.
Bloominidiot has run all the smokers out of town with his idiocy.

[CasearianDaoist]

They are just lying. We are wating for the first lynching of a smoker here abouts. I mean really, what would you say?

[Just another Joe]

Yep, they've had to go elsewhere to find jobs since bars and restaurants are closing.

[theDentist]

It could also be that a whole lot of people are lying when asked if they still smoke. Sales is the better measure of smoking. 'Course, what'll they do when smoking is completely purged from the city? Stop spending or tax something new???

[thoughtomator]

More likely that more people are evading the higher cigarette tax, and only "official" consumption is lower, blowing the entire premise of the article out of the water.

[kdot]

Social engineering using the tax code...

[antiRepublicrat]

... and in related news, organized crime involving cigarettes -- including hijacking and smuggling -- has gone through the roof, as well as robberies of convenience stores for their cigarettes.

Nice to tell a family store owner "You were robbed and your wife shot because we raised cigarette taxes enough to make such robberies worth the risk."

[TC Rider]

I'd like to know if sales of smokes are down, or if people are just lying to the survey.

They might be afraid of Nanny Bloomberg coming to their house.

[Phantom Lord]

Sales is the better measure of smoking

Not in NYC it isn't. The amount of blackmarket buying, out of state buying, and internet buying would make a sales comparrison in NYC useless.

[Phantom Lord]

See my post #10.

My In-laws live under the rule of Bloomberg. One thing they do when they travel down here to see us is rent an SUV or minivan. Reason. They stop off at JRs and purchase several HUNDRED cartons of cigarettes for family, friends, and sale.

They also purchase mass quantities over the internet from SWITZERLAND!

[theDentist]

True, but it'd be a lot more accurate than a phone poll.

[HamiltonJay]

hahaha... yea, there's just a housing bust in NYC because all the smokers have moved away.... NOT.

[Phantom Lord]

I don't think either method could be considered anything approaching accurate.

[Know your rights]

all the smokers have moved away.... NOT.

Not all, but perhaps all of the 100,000 (which wouldn't be enough to produce a "housing bust") and almost certainly a significant percentage of them.

[HamiltonJay]

hahaha, 100k people haven't moved out of NYC because of the smoking ban. People don't MOVE in great numbers because they can't smoke in restraunts.

People move to NYC because of the economic hub that it is... people don't sell and move in large numbers over something as trivial as smoking in restraunts and bars.

You show me one study at all that remotely shows the population of NYC has declined by 100k because of the smoking ban.. with about 8,000,000 people 100k represent about 1.25% of the population of the city! And that's not remotely true that over 1% of the population of the city have moved away over smoking.

[TC Rider]

They could at least compare legitimate sales over time.

I do see your point though.

I crack up when I hear our local pols advocating higher cig taxes to stop children from smoking. We too visit NYC regularly and it seems there are always more kids smoking the $7/pack cigs there than the ones smoking the cheap stuff here.

[Just another Joe]

I was actually being slightly sarcastic.
You are probably correct in your assertation that large numbers of people probably don't move simply because they can't smoke in bars or reataurants.
Give Bloominidiot another term and then we'll talk again.

I also don't believe that smokers, who have access to other ways of buying cigarettes, quit in the numbers given here.

[Bella_Bru]

So, if they put the tax there in order to force people to quit, what would they do if most smokers quit? They are already addicted to that tax revenue that is rolling in, I imagine they'd find a new 'sin' to tax.