MILLER WANTS TO RAISE TOBACCO TAX TO FIGHT DRUGS

In an effort to decrease Iowa's high occurrence of drug-related crimes, Iowa
Attorney General Tom Miller is asking the Iowa Legislature to consider
raising the tobacco tax to fund his plan.

His proposal, which he laid out in Iowa City on Thursday, pushes for a $1
increase in the state's tobacco tax, 25 cents of which would finance his $44
million initiative.

Miller discussed his plan with a group of community leaders and
substance-abuse specialists during a forum at the Iowa City branch of the
Mid-Eastern Council on Chemical Abuse.

"Each year, we come out with suggested changes. This year we decided, let's
take a step back and look at the system as a whole," he told listeners,
including Iowa City Police Chief R.J. Winkelhake, Assistant Johnson County
Attorney David Tiffany, and Chuck Green, the UI assistant vice president for
Public Safety.

Miller presented a three-pronged approach for Iowa's war on drugs:
prosecution, prevention, and treatment. MECCA employees appreciated the
specific attention given to each facet.

"We're all in this together; all three components are vital," said Shannon
Wagner, a MECCA prevention supervisor.

He said the state's doing a fair job with drug-prevention campaigns, but he
would like to see the state's funding increase from $936,000 to $2 million.
Last year, more than $6 million in prevention funding was federally backed.
He said the successful tobacco-prevention campaign to kids is evidence of
the need to increase funding for tobacco control from $5 million to
approximately $20 million.

Eileen Fisher, the director of the Johnson County Tobacco Free Coalition,
said there would be 70,000 fewer smokers in Iowa with the $1 increase.

Iowa's current cigarette tax, 36 cents, has not been increased since 1991.
Illinois and Nebraska raised their cigarette taxes in 2002 to 98 cents and
64 cents, respectively.