“Despite continuing advancements in medical treatment and prevention, cancer remains a leading cause of death in California, responsible for nearly one in every four deaths each year”. Shocking, right? That one billowing puff of smoke from a cigarette holds in it the intangible enemy of cancer, one that we self-inflict. With Butte County having the third highest smoking rate out of all the counties in the state, obviously, smoking creates problems.

                Internally, the issues glaringly stare at us in the face. Smokers choose to wreak damage to their body with this disease no one wishes to get, solely because of the cigarette’s addictiveness. Genetically, cancer does occur; however, allowing ourselves to get this disease from our own actions seems regrettably stupid.  Most do not realize the external issues of tobacco as well; cigarette butts make up 34 percent of the total litter collected in California. We not only wreak havoc on our bodies, but our world as well.

                The California Cancer Research Act gives the American Cancer Society in our state the best punching glove feasibly possible right now to fight this issue. The act proposes a one dollar excise tax on cigarettes and an equivalent increase on other tobacco products. The approximately $885 million generated in the first year will fund cancer research, tobacco prevention, smoking cessation, and enforcement anti-tobacco laws.  Seems like a no brainer, right?

                Wrong. The Californians Against Out-of-Control Taxes and Spending vehemently oppose this “flawed ballot measure”, in their own words, because they believe our budget ranks higher in importance than our lives. They throw a tantrum over the lack of funding from the act going toward education reform, saying it violates Proposition 98. The act creates a new tax on cancer-causing items, not taking from any existing revenue. Logically, the money should go to fighting cancer, which does not violate any law. The group also believes this tax shows characteristics of a regressive tax, meaning it affects only those of lower socio-economic status. Most smokers fall into that range, so I do concede it has those characteristics. However, because it affects the lower socio-economic level the most, the tax also benefits that same demographic even more. Also, when I looked at the fine print on this group’s pamphlet, I saw major funding for the group comes from Phillip Morris USA. Curious, I investigated this company. Guess who they are? This company “is the largest tobacco company in the U.S.”. Weird, isn’t it?

                Why would the largest tobacco company in the United States support a group fighting this act? Are they suddenly against the taxes and spending this group ferociously opposes? No. The tobacco companies see the act solely as a threat to their profits, not as the life-saving act it can become. Around $35 million dollars will “be allocated to the California Department of Education for programs to prevent and reduce the use of tobacco products”. Around $150 million dollars will go toward reducing the number of adult smokers in California. This act takes victims of the avarice of the tobacco companies and saves them from the manifestation of that greed, known as carcinogenic tobacco.

                I could attempt an appeal to pathos now, but a cry for empathy beginning with the phrase “Deep down in your hearts…” seems too cliché and trite to accurately convey my message. You have a heart, right? Not a figurative heart, but an anatomically real one, correct? Now imagine your heart ravaged by a disease you could prevent. So have a heart, and help save a heart.