State public health officials said this morning that cigarette sales have dropped in the first year since North Carolina increased the cigarette tax.

And yet tax revenues from cigarettes continued to grow, they said.

"This means fewer North Carolinians and their families will face illness, disability and early death," said Dr. Leah Devlin, the state's health director. "The increased tax has improved the health of both the state's people and its coffers."

State officials said there was an 18.5 percent drop in cigarette sales in the first year of the tax hike. But they said tax revenues from cigarettes grew by $157 million.

The tax was increased from five cents a pack to 30 cents on Sept. 1, 2005, and then an additional five cents was added on July 1, 2006. That brings the state's tax to 35 cents a pack, still well below the national average of $1.07 a pack.