Craft breweries giving back is an awesome thing, especially given the fact that beer is subject to exorbitant excise taxes – including a $3.50 per barrel federal excise tax “on the first 60,000 barrels for domestic brewers producing fewer than two million barrels annually” and “$16 per barrel on the first six million barrels for all other brewers and all beer importers.” Further, states impose their own excise taxes ranging from $0.02 per gallon in Wyoming to $1.29 in Tennessee. According to the Beer Institute, nearly half (40 percent) of the retail price is estimated to go towards taxes and existing research indicates that “the tax burden borne by beer drinkers is more than 68 percent higher than for the average purchase made in the U.S.”

Despite the rhetoric, it is apparent that the emergence of tobacco harm reduction products such as e-cigarettes has helped to reduce young adult smoking. It’s time for policymakers to embrace the role of tobacco harm reduction and actually protect public health rather than spew misinformation.

In each state analysis, smoking rates are examined among lower income persons, defined as having an income of $24,999 or less and determine the rate of change in the two years after state and federal cigarette tax increases. The studies also examine the rates of smoking among high income earners (defined as $50,000 or more) in the aftermath of tax increases.

In 19 years, the Pine Tree State allocated only $231.9 million toward tobacco control programs. During the same time period, Maine received an estimated $2.377 billion in cigarette tax revenue and $1.058 billion in tobacco tax settlement payments.