SALEM - Oregon lawmakers are considering raising cigarette taxes $1 a pack up to $2.18, the Associated Press reports.

Public health advocates support the measure, and speaking before the House Revenue Committee earlier this week, they said the higher tax would deter some minors from smoking.

"Cigarettes are unsafe at any level of consumption," said Bud Pierce, a Salem oncologist and president of the Oregon Medical Association, speaking before the committee. "We need to take this step and move forward, do all we can to make people not smoke. Paying more money makes people not smoke."

Opponents argued the tax increase would place an undue burden on lower income residents, who smoke at higher rates than others.

"This is an extremely regressive tax on Oregonians," said Mark Nelson, a lobbyist for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and 7-Eleven Inc.

Oregon??s $1.18 per pack state cigarette tax ranks 29th in the country and below the national average of $1.49. According to Colleen Hermann-Franzen, advocacy and communications manager at the American Lung Association, a $1 per pack tax increase would indeed discourage minors from smoking while encouraging some adults to quit or smoke less.

"We're going to see their health outcomes improve, we're going to see their quality of life improve too," Hermann-Franzen said.

To become law, the proposal requires support from three-fifths of the Oregon House and Senate, which would require bipartisan support in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Rep. Vicki Berger, the top Republican on the Revenue committee, said the increase would be a difficult sell among Republicans.