The White House said President Bush would study the report, scheduled to be released Monday in tobacco-growing communities in North Carolina and Kentucky. The report also will go to Congress. Created in September by President Clinton, the 10-member commission of farmers, health advocates and economic experts explored ways to protect the public from smoking hazards and to give tobacco growers an economic incentive to switch crops. The tax rose by 10 cents per pack in 2000 and is to climb by an additional nickel per pack next year. After five years, dollars from the higher tax should pay for tobacco-prevention, smoking cessation programs and other public health initiatives, the report recommended.
Quotas are allotments dictating how much tobacco farmers can grow.
The commission proposes to replace that system with production licenses, which, unlike quotas, could not be rented out to other farmers. Ending that practice would put tobacco production in the hands of active growers only and lower production costs for many farmers, the report said. Tobacco farmers in recent years have experienced steep cuts in the amount of tobacco they can grow, the result of declining cigarette sales and an increased reliance on cheaper tobacco from oversees. The commission also urged giving the Food and Drug Administration more authority over the tobacco industry. The FDA, the report said, should be able to regulate advertising that might reach teen-agers and force tobacco companies to remove harmful or addictive substances such as nicotine from cigarettes.