Huge Tobacco Tax increase will kick in April 1st for Californians

The state of California will raise the taxes on a pack of cigarettes by two dollars starting April 1st. This is taking place in light of Proposition 56 which was approved by voters last November.

Our news team spoke to Imperial Valley locals who say this may help theme kick the habit.

“To me, since I’m not a heavy smoker I feel like it won’t affect me but I know it will affect other people because I’ve seen smokers where they have it to the exact dime for their box that they want to get,” said Ruben Sepulveda of Brawley.

“I want to start quitting, I can afford that,” said and El Centro resident who wanted to remain anonymous.

The California Department of Public Health has links set up on their website to help Californians that may want to quit smoking due to the increase.

People can utilize resources like www.nobutts.org and www.tobaccofreeca.com.

“It’s going to be harder for people to have cigarettes and everything, more likely people is going to quit,” said Prieston Brown of El Centro.

About 3.1 million California adults smoke and about 34,000 Californians die from smoking related diseases each year. But that won’t stop brown from asking for a smoke.

“If I can’t find, I can’t buy the cigarettes basically or anything. I’ll find someone that has cigarettes and ask them for one,” explained Brown.

“It’s a loss for us, I mean smokers. And it’s like a win for the smoking tobacco because they’re just making millions of dollars off this product,” added Sepulveda.

The tax increase will not only affect cigarettes, but it will impact electronic cigarettes and e-liquids too which are taxed based on their wholesale cost.