April Fools...err those tobacco prices are for reals
 

Tomorrow one of the largest punitive tax raises in American history happens, and there's barely a peep about it. Rolling tobacco goes up like 25 bucks per pound. I know the anti smoker crowd will rejoice. But this sucks.

*rejoices*

I can't complain, as it will make it even easier for me to quit (three weeks and going) now that they'll be $8 a pack.

woohoo!

Easy there - karma is going to raise the tax on Snickers and Ben n Jerry's if you start rejoicing too much.

tobacco nazi

Good thing my mom quit about 4 months ago... she couldn't afford it at the old prices, I can't imagine how expensive cigs are about to get.

You guys still have it cheap, I think the poor bastards who smoke up here are paying like $11 a pack.

not one ounce of sympathy.

Actually they went up around here a couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of the tax increase.

(okay, to be fair, I think they were planning to retroactively tax existing inventory so it probably wasn't a price gouge but it still felt like one)

As all of the newspaper coverage around the state has pointed out, there's no real expectation by smokers nor retailers that there'll be any significant drop in consumption, just a reallocation of spending. As one guy somewhere around Macon put it, (paraphrasing as close as I can) "it won't really make much difference to me, I already keep my tobacco money & my rent money separate from everything else, I'll just be buying less of something else and between gas prices and cigarette prices I'm getting used to less of other stuff"

As long as there is no tax increase on Goldfish and fruit smoothies, I'll be okay!

How much is marijuana going up?

Marijuana prices around here have held steady since I started smoking 12 years ago.

At my store we're actually selling more cigarettes per week now as pricewise we are pretty cheap compared to our competition. so thumbs up to the tax increase from me :)

We'll see how our new company policy of no smoking except on your lunch break flees since it starts tomorrow as well...

I guess b's cost more than c's.

Anyone else chuckle when the guy who has "Location: My Car" admits to being a pot smoker for 12 years?

His car is a Denali, though.

I pulled up to a stoplight the other day and nearly got stoned from the secondary marijuana smoke coming out of the window of the car next to me. Potent stuff.

It's been five years for me and I love it.

As someone who smokes or doesn't smoke based on price, I quit smoking in 2000 because of high smoke prices in California. (I returned to the habit for a couple of years while I was in Turkey where the price was roughly 75 cents a pack.)

In any event, this will just solidify my inability to return to the habit. So if the intent of the tax hike is to stop average everyday Americans from smoking, it at least worked on me.

It's all about the kids.

+

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

(actually, I don't really eat much of either, but I felt someone had to say it)

SI

I bet if they taxed starbuck coffee some of you would bitch but smoking no problem. I want them to tax the douche bags with the bluetooth headsets...

Believe me, it would be the last thing I would ask for.

Agree 100% on bluetooth fags. Although I sort of wonder if looking like a giant dick cheese isn't already a kind of tax of its own.

How can you equate the negative health impacts of tobacco to that of coffee beans?

Maybe you *should* stop getting high.

I'm personally a big fan of any tax I don't pay.

I guess it's just like anything else, you want it bad enough, you'll pay for it.

Maybe you should go fuck yourself.

Just think, some day they will tax porn...

I'm quitting as of today, so I guess the tax increase is having the desired effect.

For the next few weeks, I'll be giving my money to Big Pharmaceutical (i.e., patches and gum) instead of Big Tobacco.

Are they going to tax high fructose corn syrup and trans fat next? Huge differences in taxes for products because of morality/health issues is yet another way the government subtly takes a sliver of freedom away from the people. I know that sounds overly dramatic, but I think it's true.

And I despise cigarettes and smoke, so it's not like I have a personal agenda.

Yeah, it's been a pretty standard $20-25 for 1/8 ounce of crap and $50-60 for an 1/8 ounce of good shit since I first picked up a bong. On the other hand, in the same time frame, I used to be able to pick up a pack of my Basic Lights for under $3.

I smoke an eighth and a pack a week.... so $55 a week for my bad habits. That sure was hell to scrounge up when I was poor in college but I don't even flinch anymore paying that.

Same answer my wife gave me.

A little sensitive about being a drug-addled dumbass?

What's the old saying? The only two things guaranteed in life are death and taxes?

You have a bong in the shape of an udder don't you?? ;)

I love the word "addled". I need to find a way to use it more often.

Talk about noop's ability to think critically and you will find yourself using it a lot.

Just like that sliver of freedom the government subtly took from all those corporations dumping toxic chemicals into the water and pumping them into the air by all those damned environmental laws.

FREEEEEEEEEDOM!

So are you saying that we should have huge taxes on anything that's unhealthy for people, or fine a parent for feeding their kids greasy burgers all the time? I mean, the kids can't help it, but the parent can. Where does it all end?


By the way, I'm hardly a flag-waving wacko dressed in red white and blue, I just see the government taking control of more and more things, and it scares me.

I have no problem with higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol. I don't smoke but some would say I like to drink :)

People pay for porn?

Smoking over processed and dried tobacco just isn't worth it. You don't get enough of a lasting effect to justify the smoke and chemicals you are putting in your body. So while it is a dick move that governments are overtaxing something, I am happy for the smokers that this forces to quit.

No. But smoking is decidedly different in that if you're smoking next to me, I receive some of the ill effects. It's essentially pollution on a much smaller, personal scale (which is why the environmental analogy works).

I think the government has the right to step into do something about individual actions when they have the potential to harm other people.

I don't get fat if you feed your kid a greasy burger.


You may not have a flag or dess in red white and blue, but I've known you far too long around here to think you anything but a wacko. :D

I would think that, in this day and age, only people who are confused by the internet, people who are lazy or people who have a bit of an addicition problem are the ones who pay for porn.

No, they don't market marijuana utensils for farmers :)

Not to mention the fact that society will end up paying a fortune for people's emphysema, cancer, and heart disease.

I'm a low-tax, smaller government guy, but of all taxes, let's be most aggressive in taxing things that are completely optional, and make the world incredibly worse (as opposed to say, income).

But isn't the government already doing something about it by banning smoking in public building, and workplaces? No one has to smell smoke when they go out anymore (other than a tiny wiff from the car in front of you or something), so unless you choose to, you don't have to take in any significant amount of second-hand smoke.

I will say that it's true that kids can't avoid it if their parents smoke, and that sucks; however, that brings up my greasy burger thing - isn't making your kid obese similarly bad as smoking around them? If so, why not fine them for serving unhealthy foods, since the parents are being punished with taxes in cigarettes in the same way?



You've got me pegged. ;)