You can mail-order cigarettes, right? Why not find a company based in North Carolina or Kentucky where the taxes are low.

Nah, they'll just complain about nanny states and get cancerous and dead.

I quit on 3/16/09 (NJ resident). The price went up $1.40/pack since then. Fark you, government.

The price increase has helped me in my effort to quit. Here in Los Angeles a pack is about $5, which is about a $1.50 increase from December. But, I was out in Boston last month and the backs were over $8. In any case, I should be finished with my habit soon and not have to worry about the prices.

Oh goodie, an anti-smoking thread! I think we went a whole week without one.

I'm going to stay out of this one and go have a cigarette..

I hate smokers. And I'm an ex-smoker.

Enjoy your broken lungs.

UNC_Samurai: You can mail-order cigarettes, right? Why not find a company based in North Carolina or Kentucky where the taxes are low.

Because that would be at least 26 cents (starting May 11) more than the 62 cent tax, probably.

Ohh ho ho!! Is funny because is not true!

So if there's a tax hike for this sort of thing, what does the tax revenue pay for? And what happens to those programs if the tax drives out the business?

Vlade smoke. Vlade also in NBA for many year. You know I was trade for Kobe? Whoa, now! You anger at smoke make me fall over, is foul. Vlade ball!

If they don't stop smoking, it's easy money.

Win-win.

Packs are around $7 now, up from $5.50. I haven't quit yet.

Really just make it illegal or leave it alone. I'm not even sure what the main point of raising the taxes on cigarettes so high is: To increase revenue or encourage people to quit altogether. Just like in the article, the state seems to be actually losing money on this deal. Its really not fair and there are plenty of people who will not quit for anything and those people will become more of a burden on the state in other ways with less money in their pockets.

/I smoke maybe 2 cigarettes a week.

Hey -- smoking doesn't make you a prick.

Most of them were pricks before, too.

Still no cure for smugness.

Well, this is America. If you can't get a cost of living increase, you might as well get a cost of dying increase.

Ryankenny: Hey -- smoking doesn't make you a prick.

Most of them were pricks before, too.

Correlation, and not causation!

As a smoker it hurts that I am getting taxed so much on one of the few things I truly enjoy, but I completely understand.

Why ban something when you could stand to make a fortune from it first?

FYI- 99% of the shops here put the hike into effect around February-Mid March even though the tax didn't take effect until now.

\more proof of the evils of smoking

The government should just start selling cigarettes.

Someday, they'll get smart and start taxing fat people. They use a lot more resources than smokers.

Tax it as high as possible until they quit or we get a light rail system in Seattle from the profits. Either way, it's a win-win situation.

OOH! OOH! I AM SMOKER. I AM OUTRAGED. THIS HEADLINE IS OFFENSIVE! I WILL COMMENCE IN DEFENDING MY HABITS AGAINST SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET!

Normally, I would get out my popcorn for a thread with this potential, but the smoke would just make it taste awful.

shotglasss: Someday, they'll get smart and start taxing fat people. They use a lot more resources than smokers.

They do. Some states have a sales tax on food. And health insurance goes up. What is your goal, to have an obtuse pricing system where only the skinny, white, non-smoking, female hot people under 40 don't get high taxes?

I quit smoking 8 years ago. I can't wait to see peoples reaction when cigarettes hit $10/pk.

sub_harmonic: OOH! OOH! I AM SMOKER. I AM OUTRAGED. THIS HEADLINE IS OFFENSIVE! I WILL COMMENCE IN DEFENDING MY HABITS AGAINST SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET!

2/10

I alway found non-smoker to be bigger pricks and douchebags.

Oh well. It's nice that I can hit nogales and get US branded smokes without that nasty little tax problem.

Stop putting things in your bodies. It offends me.

Seriously though, send your tax money elsewhere and buy your cigarettes from reservations or online from Russia. Punch American soceity in the balls and send your money elsewhere. It's the only way to punish the humanists who believe they can tell you what is acceptable to put in your body.

Non-smoker activists and gay bashers are the same crowd, as far as I am concerned.

I started to smoke pot again after 15 years. it's more fun and (not really ) cheaper but I smoke fewer cigarettes. %4 years old and would rather stick to nicotine.....


Free nicotine delivery systems (patches) from health depts are a real joke.

They advocate a smoke free thing and then provide concentrated nicotine at a huge subsidized price? Paid for by tax payers?

i'm sorry
but as far as drugs go

cigarettes are a lose/lose choice.


/done em all
//keep yer smokes

Either raises the taxes enough to get people to quit or put the tax money in a fund to take care of the head and neck cancer patients around here (Chapel Hill, NC). So many of these patients end up dumping their assets to get on Medicaid to pay for their hospital bills and extensive surgery. These people have a choice regarding their health. Stay off Medicaid and leave it for the truly needy. Most of these people knew the risks of smoking and chose cigarettes over reducing their risk of cancer. Oh well........

AbiNormal
I quit smoking 8 years ago. I can't wait to see peoples reaction when cigarettes hit $10/pk.

It's right about there now in NYC.

Well, as an infrequent smoker, I can say I am pretty much now a non-smoker.

Freezingprocess: Why ban something when you could stand to make a fortune from it first?

This particular tax cost about 180K jobs and apparently will cost Washington state about $21M. How did this help that cause?

I enjoy that our government makes money off the addictions people place on themselves. Quick easy way to make money.

Good. If you don't think it's the Government's responsibility to tax you into good behavior according to politicians then you can move to Somalia.

DubyaHater: Either raises the taxes enough to get people to quit or put the tax money in a fund to take care of the head and neck cancer patients around here (Chapel Hill, NC). So many of these patients end up dumping their assets to get on Medicaid to pay for their hospital bills and extensive surgery. These people have a choice regarding their health. Stay off Medicaid and leave it for the truly needy. Most of these people knew the risks of smoking and chose cigarettes over reducing their risk of cancer. Oh well........

How about "What people do their OWN bodies I have no right to dictate. I have no right to punish nor discourage what a person may put in their bodies, whether it is drugs, poison, soy milk, McDonald's, or cigarette smoke."

Say it a few thousand times until you learn it.

Ex girlfriend (and baby momma) is threatening to bring me to court to raise my child support after I refused to buy her a carton.

I was doing it before because she was doing a good job at being a mom, but now at $50 every week for a carton (yes she smokes that much) it's becoming way too expensive and obviously dangerous a habit.

/I have never smoked in my life.
//I absolutely love my daughter, and if having such a difficult person to deal with like my ex is the price I have to pay..I would pay it three times forward. Daughter is so beautiful and wonderful.

I hope a large black market for cigs emerges, if only for the inevitable NY Post story entitled "Butt Piracy."

I think it's amusing to call a smoker a douchebag when 99.9% of the time they mind their own business while partaking in their activity.
100% of the time, anti-smokers stick their faces in where they aren't wanted, acting like pricks to make a point that smokers are pricks.
Of the 30-something comments here already, I can see 50% of you are douchenozzles.

/Hates cigarettes
//Doesn't hate smokers. People can do what they want, as long as it isn't in my face.

Antidamascus: I enjoy that our government makes money off the addictions people place on themselves. Quick easy way to make money.

We should tax caffeine next. Who would even notice a few extra pennies on a cup of coffee?

UNC_Samurai: You can mail-order cigarettes, right? Why not find a company based in North Carolina or Kentucky where the taxes are lowan Indian reservation where there are almost no taxes.

Better.

Taxation... representation... yadayadayada

SwallowTheKnife: I think it's amusing to call a smoker a douchebag when 99.9% of the time they mind their own business while partaking in their activity.
100% of the time, anti-smokers stick their faces in where they aren't wanted, acting like pricks to make a point that smokers are pricks.
Of the 30-something comments here already, I can see 50% of you are douchenozzles.

/Hates cigarettes
//Doesn't hate smokers. People can do what they want, as long as it isn't in my face.

You reeeeaaaaallly like making up statistics, don't you?

SwallowTheKnife: 100% of the time, anti-smokers stick their faces in where they aren't wanted, acting like pricks to make a point that smokers are pricks.

The worst are the militant ex-smokers. They are more full of smug than Prius owners.

LlamaGirl: Oh goodie, an anti-smoking thread! I think we went a whole week without one.

I'm going to stay out of this one and go have a cigarette..

I think they should raise the beer / liquor taxes just as much. Oh and toss in a junk food tax while they're at it. Why stop at just smoking?

thenateman: Antidamascus: I enjoy that our government makes money off the addictions people place on themselves. Quick easy way to make money.

We should tax caffeine next. Who would even notice a few extra pennies on a cup of coffee?

Almost missed that one.

rcain: Taxation... representation... yadayadayada

Smokers can vote just like anyone else.

Remove all Republicans: Nobody has ever died of second-hand caffeine.

Where can you find second-hand smoke these days? Maybe if you go to the smoking section, located outside and at least 30 feet from the doorway. Other than that, I think people are pretty much safe from the horrors of second-hand smoke.

You can grow tobacco in your greenhouse, dry the leaves yourself and roll your own papers. Total cost is just a few bucks and an hour or so of your time.

Because, ya know, tobacco never existed before Philip Morris.