No more cheap cigarettes for American military, the bill passed
During both world wars tobacco was necessarily included in the standard army ration of British, French and U.S. military. Smoking even was encouraged by army command because it was believed that smoking relieves tension.
During the Second World War, at the insistence of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, tobacco was included in the list of strategic goods.
In America till today, soldiers have a 25% discount in the commissaries and exchanges on cigarettes and tobacco products, including snuff and chewing tobacco.
But this month, everything changed, a $ 549.3 billion defense spending bill passed by the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on July 15, 2014.
It includes the formulation about Military cheap cigarettes discount elimination till the start of this fiscal year, beginning October 1.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Chairman of the subcommittee, provided studies which demonstrate that in the military sphere is abuse of tobacco use, which leads to diseases such as cancer, heart disease and frequent exposure to allergy, this leads to expenses for health care more than $ 1.6 billion a year. "There is no reason these deadly products are subsidized," Durbin said.
Remind that the issue about tobacco discounts elimination for military already was raised earlier this year. But Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif argued the fact that "tobacco is one of the few pleasures for a member of the military", this argument convinced his colleagues not to adopt the law about removing discount on tobacco products for member of the military in May 2014.
Nevertheless, this issue was raised again in mid-July, and there is a high probability that the law will be adopted not in favor of cheap cigarettes and smoking military, but in favor of the American economics, which once again wants to improve its situation due to tobacco users.
DBTechno reported that cigarettes cost for military in commissaries and exchanges is eighty-five cents less than the same cigarettes sold elsewhere, and members of the military are more prone to smoke than civilians due stress and depression. As reported statistics, civilian smoke one in five against the military, where nearly one in three smokes.
Дата размещения: 06.08.2014