TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Smoking and other forms of tobacco are expensive: not only for the user, but for Florida taxpayers as a whole.
Getting that message across is the focus of an important campaign this year.
A pack of cigarettes in Florida costs between $5 and $7. A pack-a-day smoker will spend $2,100 this year. Over five years, Tobacco Free Florida said more than $10,000 will go up in smoke.
“If you stop smoking, you're going to save that money out of your bank account and you're also going to save a lot of money in health care costs for yourself and for the state,” said Kellie O’Dare, of Tobacco Free Florida.
In the early 1990s, Florida was spending $400 million a year on health care costs for smokers. It sued and won a multibillion-dollar settlement with Big Tobacco. The constitution requires that at least 15 percent goes toward tobacco prevention.
The cash has lowered the rate of smoking and saved the state billions in health care costs.
And consider this: 10 years ago, one in five adults and one in 10 teens were lighting up. Since then, smoking rates have dropped dramatically.
“We have about 15 percent of Florida's adults who are still smoking and only about 3 percent of youth,” O’Dare said.
Tobacco Free Florida said about 159,000 people have quit over the past 10 years. Taxpayers have saved about $17 billion in medical care.
Although smoking statewide is down, rates remain higher than 19 percent in a dozen, mostly rural, counties.
“A lot of research shows that the tobacco industries target vulnerable populations,” said Dr. Kevin Frentz, a tobacco prevention specialist. “So (people who are) minorities (or) low-income.”
One recent trend alarming to the organization is the use of e-cigarettes and vape pens as an avenue to quit smoking.
Neither e-cigarettes or vape pens are approved by the FDA. Tobacco Free Florida says these items are not effective.
“Because of the turnaround time for us to find whether there's any problem, it could take a generation,” Frentz said.
Tobacco Free Florida provides free patches, counseling and other help for smokers looking to quit. The group’s website also offers a calculator for smokers to see how much their habit costs.