House Bill 5727, otherwise known as the “sin tax” bill, which proposes the adoption of a unitary tax system for tobacco and liquor and indexation of taxes to inflation, is now pending before the House ways and means committee.
The bill may still have some rough edges to be smoothened out, but it’s a bill that has to be prioritized to bolster what, to me, is the most effective strategy to curb smoking and excessive drinking in the population—work on the youth and exert all efforts to prevent them from getting into these vices early on.
Lucrative target
This will nip smoking and excessive drinking in the bud. Marketing-wise, the youth is a most lucrative target for cigarette and alcohol beverage manufacturers. Their marketing “shelf life” is much longer and will provide a continuing steady source for sales revenues for decades. Making the prices of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages beyond the means of teenagers would be a strong deterrent for them to try smoking and drinking.
Data from both the United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Disease Control (CDC) show that 9 out of 10 adult cigarette smokers began the habit before turning 18. All other researches support the findings that very few people initiate cigarette smoking or become habitual smokers after their teen years.
The same thing is true for drinking. Alcohol has been shown to be the most used drug—in fact, even more than tobacco—in some countries like the United States. By starting these habits at a young, very impressionable age, youths become easy prey for sustained, sometimes lifelong addiction to smoking and drinking. Because of their weakened immune systems, they also become more prone to various diseases. Hence, the lifespan of smokers and excessive drinkers is significantly shorter than their nonsmoking and nondrinking counterparts.
Easy prey
The CDC tells us that every day 3,900 12- to 17-year-old kids smoke their first cigarette, and another 1,000 try their first gulp of alcohol. This translates to around 1.8-million youths every year who are lured into smoking and drinking. Some of them will realize soon enough the fools they made themselves, but the majority would find these vices “cool” and succumb to peer pressure to continue smoking and drinking. After some time, they get hooked to these vices, and they find themselves helpless to quit.
It’s quite ironic that youths belonging to the low socioeconomic status, especially those whose parents smoke or drink, are more prone to get hooked to these vices. Again, increasing the prices of cigarettes and alcohol would help make these beyond the reach of these vulnerable youths.
Most youths who smoke are simply uneducated about the dangers of smoking. This is were graphic picture warnings on cigarette packs showing, cancerous gums and lungs, yellow-orange teeth, gangrenous legs and blocked heart arteries would help in reminding the youths and other potential smokers what they’re up to should they take on the vice.
Interventions
The schools are a fertile ground for adventurous youths to try their first puff and drink. School authorities should not abdicate in their important role to prevent this from happening. They should not tire in reminding their students about the ill effects of smoking and drinking.
In addition to convincing them about the health hazards these vices bring, they should show the students how much money, per week, month or year, they can save by not smoking and drinking. This should be a more convincing tool should the “sin tax” bill be passed.
The homes should also be a haven, keeping all temptations to smoke and drink away. Parents who smoke and drink are unwittingly serving as the primary agents inducing their children to do the same. We hope our dear president also realizes this.
It is most unfortunate that some parents even encourage their children to learn to smoke and drink at home with the distorted pretext that they would rather see their children at home enjoying these vices than out in the streets with their friends.
Stricter measures
Aside from school- and home-based interventions, we must have stricter measures of implementing regulations regarding youth purchase of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, possession and use. Smoking and drinking in the youth should be labeled as a serious misdemeanor and repeated offenses should be penalized, just to teach them a hard lesson and make them quit these vices.
The government should show a stronger political will in implementing its comprehensive tobacco control program. The current battle to pass House Bill 5727 is also a test of wills. Let’s see which will is stronger—the will to save the youth from the harms of smoking, or the will to save an industry which has been established to be killing scores of thousands of Filipinos year after year.