Tobacco.org

• Cigarette purchases decrease 

A hefty tax hike on cigarette purchases in Oklahoma three years ago has reduced the number of cigarettes sold in the state and motivated many Oklahoma smokers to cut back or quit, an Oklahoma State University survey shows.

"The results of this study are important, because smoking kills. And the research finds that increasing the tobacco tax saves lives by reducing smoking," said Josh Wiener, co-principal investigator for the study. He is a head of the Department of Marketing in the Spears School of Business at OSU.

Wiener, along with OSU assistant professor of marketing Alex Zablah, analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

"My goodness gracious, people really did respond the way we thought they would," Wiener said of the survey results by telephone from his Stillwater home.

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