BISMARCK – Legislation to raise North Dakota’s tax on commercial tobacco products and implement a tax on vaping supplies is getting support from Stand Up for Youth-ND, a coalition of community, state and national organizations.

The newly formed coalition is backing House Bill 1570, introduced by Rep. Vicky Steiner, R-Dickinson with a bipartisan group of co-sponsors.

The organization argues North Dakota’s commercial tobacco tax structure has not kept pace with the changing marketplace. At only 44 cents per pack, North Dakota’s tax on cigarettes ranks 49th in the country and is much lower than the average state cigarette tax at $1.97 per pack, it stated in a news release. North Dakota most recently raised the tax on cigarettes in 1993.

“Despite declines in smoking rates, we still have a youth tobacco problem due to high nicotine levels in e-cigarettes and other commercial tobacco products,” said Tony Burke, government relations director for the American Heart Association. “Commercial tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in North Dakota. We must do more to prevent young people from ever starting and to help current users successfully quit, and raising taxes is the proven way to most effectively accomplish this goal.”

Untaxed commercial tobacco products in North Dakota, such as e-cigarettes and flavored nicotine pouches, are fueling North Dakota’s youth tobacco use problem, according to the coalition. Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical that can harm adolescent brain development and affect memory and learning, it stated.

“We have a shared responsibility to keep these dangerous and addictive products away from children,” said Heather Austin, executive director of Tobacco Free North Dakota, in the release “It seems like every year there are new commercial tobacco and nicotine products introduced with the intent of hooking a new generation.”

Steiner’s bill would increase the tax on cigarettes to $1.53 per pack, increase the tax on a can of snuff from 60 cents per ounce to $1.96 per ounce and increase the tax on chewing tobacco from 16 cents per ounce to 52 cents per ounce. In addition, it would establish a tax on electronic smoking devices and alternative tobacco products at 56% of the wholesale price. The taxes are estimated to generate $24.15 million in new annual revenue.

The bill proposes dedicating a portion of the commercial tobacco tax revenue to a new fund – the tobacco tax distribution behavioral health fund – to provide depression and anxiety behavioral health services.

Stand Up for Youth cites research showing the higher taxes would prevent 500 youth from becoming adults who smoke, encourage 1,700 adults who smoke to quit, save the state $320,000 in Medicaid spending over the next five years and $28.55 million in long-term health care costs, and prevent 400 smoking-caused premature deaths.