The American Cancer Society, health professionals and several other groups want Missourians to change the state Constitution, so they can pay more for their tobacco use.
And the groups want education - including efforts to teach about the harm tobacco causes - to benefit from the tax hike plan.
The proposed initiative petition was submitted Tuesday to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's office. The secretary of state, auditor and attorney general must approve a ballot title and calculate a fiscal note before the petitions can be circulated, and voters asked to sign them.
The petition proposes a constitutional amendment on the November 2012 ballot, creating an 80-cent per pack increase in Missouri's cigarettes tax and an equivalent increase on other tobacco product prices.