Cigarette tax hike good, now limit retail sellers

Your Aug. 12 article, “Stores say new cigarette tax is killing sales,” overlooked an important fact. Thousands of youth will not begin to use tobacco because of the jump in tobacco product prices. According to the New York State Department of Health, the current increase in tobacco taxes is expected to prevent 170,500 New York kids from ever becoming smokers.

When asked, an overwhelming majority of smokers say that they wished they never began the addictive habit. Thank you, Gov. Paterson and state legislators, for returning New York state to its No. 1 rank as the highest tobacco state tax in the country, and, therefore, making it more difficult for the tobacco companies to lure our youth.

Unfortunately, the battle with Big Tobacco is far from over. The next step to protect our youth would be to limit the density of retail tobacco outlets, particularly in areas close to schools. In New York there is one licensed tobacco retailer for every 194 children under the age of 18. Do we really need all of these outlets to sell tobacco products?

Laura Waterhouse
Latham