“If tax collections are any indication, menthol smokers not only haven’t quit, they’ve skipped across the border to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York and other states to satisfy their habit, taking other convenience-store related business with them. That’s what a new report from the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association indicates. That group, which opposed the legislation that also placed a 75% excise tax on vaping products, said the menthol ban has cost Massachusetts more than $62 million in lost tax revenue. Massachusetts collected about $550 million in cigarette excise-tax revenue during fiscal 2019, Boesen said, and lawmakers predict a loss of $93 million in fiscal 2021 revenue due to the flavored-tobacco ban. Meanwhile, New Hampshire has gained more than $28 million in tobacco excise taxes since the ban took effect on June 1. Overall, New Hampshire cigarette sales are up 46%, while in Massachusetts they’re down almost 24%. It didn’t work with a nationwide prohibition on the manufacture and consumption of alcohol, and a century later, Massachusetts has experienced the same result on a far smaller scale.”
ARTICLE LINK: Menthol-tobacco prohibition: Ban or just Band-Aid?
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