'Chicago' Drummer In East Bay To Drum Up Support for New $2 Per Pack CA Tobacco Tax

Tris Imboden in 2013; photo via Wikipedia.

------

News from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc.:

The $2 per pack tobacco tax under consideration by the State Legislature picked up a new champion: Tris Imboden, a rare lung cancer survivor, whose 25-year career as drummer for the band Chicago barely skipped a beat despite grueling cancer treatment including radiation, chemotherapy and surgery to remove most of right lung.

The Legislature may look to the new tobacco tax as a way to bridge the Medi-Cal funding gap. Additionally, as of Friday, the Save Lives California coalition has been cleared to begin gathering signatures for a ballot initiative effort. The per-pack tax would net an estimated $1.1 billion in its first year.

The coalition is planning to proceed to the 2016 ballot with the tax proposal, if the Legislature is unable to pass the tax during the special session underway.

Imboden is in the East Bay with the band Chicago to perform at the Concord Pavilion July 15 at 7:30 p.m. for a kick-off summer concert tour with Earth, Wind & Fire. (Ticket info here.)

His frightening battle with Stage IIIA lung cancer, which few people survive, is a compelling testament to how hard it is to give up smoking and the dire consequences when people cannot quit. A decade after he finally escaped his 30-year smoking addiction, which according to him was far harder to give up than anything else from his rock star lifestyle, Imboden received his life-changing lung cancer diagnosis.

“Early in my treatment, I vowed that if I survived five years I would join the cancer fight to work to inspire young people to steer clear of smoking—that means e-cigarettes, too,” said Imboden. “I really don’t know how the tobacco industry sleeps at night when they keep pushing an addiction that will basically kill half of all the people who continue to buy and use their toxic product.”

The net effect of California’s nicotine addiction costs nearly $23 billion a year in direct healthcare costs and indirect costs from lost productivity due to illness and premature deaths, according to University of California, San Francisco researchers. In 2014 alone, over 40,000 Californians died from tobacco-related diseases.

Prior to joining Chicago, the popular musician recorded and toured with the likes of Kenny Loggins, Al Jarreau, Firefall, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Neil Diamond during a career that began in high school as a founding member of the 1970s band Honk.

He recently sat down with the Save Lives California campaign to explain why he is in favor of raising the tobacco tax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iv6dSXEves) or scroll down to see the video.

For more information, visit www.acscan.org.