Edit: Snuff Out Butts, Of Snuff Out Kids

It’s been nearly 50 years since the Surgeon General linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer. Forty years ago, cigarette ads on TV disappeared. And the child born when Big Tobacco settled its lawsuits, forfeited billions in profits to the states and curbed advertising geared to youngsters is now attending high school. Who would have imagined back then - when it was 1964, 1971 or even 1998 — that one of five American teenagers would continue to take up a habit that could eventually sicken and kill them? And who in his right mind would have thought that politicians today would allow that to continue? Take Idaho for instance, where one of every seven teenagers will begin a life-long smoking habit/ Marty Trillhaase , Lewiston Tribune. More here .

Question: A $1.50 per pack tax that will be proposed in the 2012 Legislature, to make it harder for Idaho youth to get cigarettes, faces an uphill fight against anti-tax ideologues. Should Idaho pass the tax?