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The proponents of I-185 say this massive tax increase on cigarettes will help reduce smoking in Montana. But when you dig into the details of this gargantuan tax hike, it becomes apparent they don’t care much at all about helping people quit smoking — this initiative is really just a cash grab to grow government.

First of all, I-185 isn’t just a tax on tobacco products. It also includes a brand new, 83-percent tax on vaping products. Vaping has been identified as a potential way to help smokers quit. Imposing an expensive tax on vaping products will make it that much harder for people who want to quit smoking to afford vaping products to help them quit.

For those of us who’ve used vaping to get cigarettes out of our lives for good, being lumped together with tobacco is offensive.

Second, the backers of I-185 claim the new revenue raised by their tax hike will be used to fund programs that prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. The fact is their initiative only allocates 4 percent of new revenue for tobacco cessation and prevention programs. And, based on the initiative language, it doesn’t look like any of the cessation programs will necessarily include vaping.