$6.50 a pack for cigarettes if tax passes (California)

[Ernesto]

Hospitals, children's advocates and anti-smoking groups announced Tuesday that they will join forces to seek voter approval for a new $2.60-a-pack tax on cigarettes, averting a potential showdown between two separate measures that were headed for the ballot next year.
If it qualifies for the November ballot and passes, the new initiative would provide an estimated $2.27 billion annually for universal children's health insurance, emergency-room care, smoking prevention, disease research, and other health-related programs. It would raise the average price of a pack of cigarettes, now selling for close to $4, to more than $6.50.


http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13977808p-14811666c.html

[seriousstan]

1. I heard this song and dance when the tobacco lawsuits were popular

I also remember the reports of where the money actually went. The vast majority of states used their cuts of the settlements for general funds. I know in Ohio, the anti-smoking money has been pillaged.

I say, get off the tit of the smokers! Make it illegal or leave it alone.

[saigon68]

8. In WI they used the money to build prisons

To house those "uppity" minorities who smoke "crack"

[Zynx]

40. We really have wasted a huge amount of money on prisons in this state.

It's part of the reason we have so many budget problems right now.

[saigon68]

58. They bought Stanley from the CCA

There are still 8500 in CCA facilities in Tenn Miss OK and other places


http://www.correctionscorp.com/





# The company is the sixth largest corrections system in the nation, behind only the federal government and four states.
# CCA is the founder of the private corrections industry and is the nation’s largest provider of jail, detention and corrections services to governmental agencies.
# CCA has approximately 69,000 beds in 63 facilities, including 38 owned facilities, under contract for management in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
# The company manages more than 62,000 inmates including males, females and juveniles at all security levels and does business with all three federal corrections agencies, almost half of all states, and more than a dozen local municipalities.

[triguy46]

85. Prisons are seen as a growth industry in OK

Communities compete for new ones, hopeful of landing a bunch o $8/hour jobs.

[Kindigger]

2. If I had to choose

I'd rather take a trip to Canada, and smoke their $6.50 cigs.

[insane_cratic_gal]

3. I'm glad I quit

I have to say, the price of cigs did start to become a factor to why I quit.

1. My daughter and her health.


2. My Health I wanted to be around to see my daughter's life unfold (I know a 1,000 things could happen to prevent that but at least if it happens it wasn't something I was doing to myself)

3. the price of cigs was getting absurd, after getting laid off.. it was one expense I felt I could give up.

[slackmaster]

30. I'm glad you quit too

:toast:

[Scairp]

56. Good for you

I hate smoking, I find no redeeming quality in tobacco products, and I wish all smokers would stop making the tobacco industry wealthy at the expense of their own lives. What will it take? Choosing between cigarettes and buying food and paying the rent?

[Milspec]

71. What will it take?

What will it take? Choosing between cigarettes and buying food and paying the rent?

This might do it.

Scairp, this is a real tough habit to break. I'm in the midst of trying now (after 10 days in hospital and surgery! for pneumonia). Let me tell you, kicking a bad crystal meth habit was easer than this.

[sandnsea]

78. No

We'll just have lots more kids in the foster care system because their parents were neglecting them to support their nicotine habit. Kind of stupid to knowingly create a situation like that, but it won't be the first time government has destroyed lives because it doesn't recognize the boundary between enabling and inflicting suffering.

[mike6640]

75. so glad.

I quit cold turkey last January.

I quit for myself. My wife and children stand to benefit from my decision as well.

long happy life to you.

M

[SheilaT]

4. The lovely thing about this,

is that despite all the complaining smokers do, unless smoking is literally outlawed, there will always be plenty of them to be taxed like this.

Hint: if you were dumb enough to start in the first place, give it up.

[rinsd]

10. It's not the taxing of cigs that bothers me much....

...its the lie that this will go to children and not into the general fund.

See the tobacco lawsuits that were initiated to recover healthcare costs.

[iconoclastNYC]

23. How can you say it's a lie?

Are you looking into the future? Can I get a peek in your crystal ball.

You can be skeptical that it will actually go to help smokers but you can't call it a lie before it's even implemented.

[da_chimperor]

28. Given the fact that the state of California is heavily indebted . . .

i'd bet some of it will go toward things other than what it's meant for. Paying down the debt being on that list.

[katty]

45. it will pass here in CA-we're always paying down the debt...

we have a substantial economy up/down the state, media, tourism, agribusiness-more people are moving here from other states because of their heating costs/no jobs-(lately I've seen lots of Louisiana plates)it has always been this way (born & raised)in CA, it will never change...we have 135+ dialects in LA county alone. More and more people move here from everywhere, and this sucks state resources.

[Ernesto]

50. You called it Katty

I get a a big kick out of all the people who throw in the towel, move away & blame California for their inability to cope.....
As a man once said: "We may not lead always lead the nation, but the future just seems to get here sooner in California".

[rinsd]

34. "you can't call it a lie before it's even implemented"

Based on past evidence, I can though maybe lie is too harsh a word...how about deliberately misleading?.

The situation that is going on in CA with our debt issues and school funding problems this reprsents a potential golden goose to take care of school funding, general fund needs, paying down bonds etc.

I'm not crazy about sin taxes since they are heavily regressive. But beyond that the child angle is marketing and little more. This is going on the ballot, not through the legislature. How do you sell a measure such as a huge tax increase? Claim its for the children. Unless the law has ironclad guarantees where the funding goes, then the money will go where the state sees fit. We actually had to have a ballot measure a couple of years ago forcing the state to keep transportation funds for transportation and not dumped into the general fund.

[hogwyld]

55. California history teaches us

That any taxes eventually end up in the general fund. Gas and registration taxes that are supposed to be only for highway projects and CHP funding got raided, state park fees got raided, the billions that the state got from the tobacco settlement, just to name a couple.

[iconoclastNYC]

20. Don't blame smokers.

Tobacco companies created a entire culture that glorified it. I'd bet 9/10 people get hooked when they are children to "fit it" with the cool crowd. You can't blame it solely on stupidity.

It wasn't so long ago that it was advertised on TV and was purported to be good for your health. You can't tear down those impressions overnight.

Big Tobacco is evil plain and simple so I think most of the blame lies with the big tabacco companies that lied to thier customers for decades about what thier product caused.

The notion that it's even addictive is recent admision by big tabacoo.

As long as you tax these things that money should go to programs that provide free resources to anyone who wants to quit. If there's money left over only then should it go to the general fund. But finding politicians to do the right thing is always a challenge.

[High Plains]

46. Oh, c'mon.

I think it was something like 40 years ago that TV cigarette advertising was banned.

And 1964 when the surgeon general said it was bad for you.

I don't think anyone who has started smoking since LBJ was president can claim he didn't know smoking was bad for you. Believing big tobacco about smoking is like believing big oil about how it's saving the environment.

And, yes, I am a smoker.

[Psephos]

60. The unlovely thing is that tobacco taxes are regressive

They hit disproportionate numbers of people in the lower economic strata. In this regard, they are like that other regressive tax called the lottery. I find it hard to describe a tax paid disproportionately by poor people as fitting with progressive ideals...let alone the liberty issues. Collect more from poor people, and you don't have to collect as much from rich people.

Furthermore, the idea that revenues from tobacco taxes is going to be used for emergency rooms and schools and all the rest is a joke. It all goes into the same pot, and it all comes out of the same pot. Take a look at how the states spent their tobacco settlement windfalls, after all that pious posturing before the damages were awarded. They spent it like any sailor with a wad of hundos in his pocket and three days of shore leave.

Peace.

[CornField]

62. Thank you for saying that & I'll add a bit more

Many of those who are of lower income and who are smoking are self-medicating for depression and other mental illnesses. Until I quit smoking last year, I had no idea that I suffered from depression. Within a month and a half, I was in my doctor's office, barely able to function. My doctor was going over my chart and smiled when she got to the "stopped smoking" line. "Happens all the time," she told me. "Most people don't even realize they are self-medicating. I have others who start smoking again because they can't afford to deal with their depression through medications and therapy." (Fortunately, I have insurance.)

[Massacure]

64. Simple solution. Don't buy tobacco.

There are some things people can live without. Tobacco is one of them.

[Psephos]

65. Here are some other simple solutions

Poor? Get a good-paying job.

Alcoholic? Throw that demon rum in the trash and take the pledge.

Abused by spouse? Pack the car and leave, clean break.

Simple solutions, perfect you might say...except in actual life, they don't work.

I couldn't agree with you more that not buying tobacco eliminates the tax. But in the real world, poor people are going to keep buying tobacco. I'm not making a moral judgment there, pro or con. But the fact that they are going to keep buying it means the tax is regressive.

That's the problem with sin taxes. They're passed by people who say what you just said, which is all the sinners have to do is quit sinning and they don't have to pay. Now, Massacure, let me ask you an honest question. Do you have any sins?

I don't understand why we need to attach a tax to poor peoples' sins, and not rich peoples'. That is exactly backward.

Peace.

[Massacure]

66. Anything that negatively affects society should be taxed.

Smoking creates an unnecessary burden on the health care system, especially with the uninsured people. I hope that the tax money is used to pay the hospital bills of the uninsured. They are just prepaying for their illness the way I see. My grandpa started smoking when he was 8 and smoked until just a few months before he died. He was an organ donor, but they wouldn't take any of his organs except his eyes because all the other ones had cancer. He was constantly ill and in and out of the hospital. He's lucky he could afford it, earning excellent wages and benefits in a paper mill before he had to retire.

I agree that rich people and even corporation should have to pay for their sins to society. Power plants, for example, should have to pay for social programs based on how much pollution they put into the environment. Semi-trucks should have to pay extra in tax for wear and tear on the highway system. There are a lot of things that do not repay society for what they take advantage of. It's criminal if you ask me.

[rfkrfk]

80. better solution, buy tobacco, roll your own

cut out the thieving middle men

[Loonman]

5. I call BS as to where the tax money will go

It always goes into some politician's pocket or a slush fund.

[Gregorian]

6. I don't think our government needs that money.

Why should we build more bombs on the backs of smokers?

I don't know what to think of this. Could we give that money to a good cause? And if so, why not just start doing this with everything we buy? Like broccoli, or milk. Make milk ten bucks a gallon (oops, it already is), twenty bucks a gallon... Oh fuck it.

I just can't take life seriously anymore. Fitzgerald! Come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, I'm going to step back and watch you idiots from a distance like I did before Bush showed up.

Oh my god.

/remembers when smokes were 25 cents. doesn't smoke. doesn't care.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

7. Taxing addicts is kind of like taxing patients for their medicine...

Only way I think it would be ok would be if the $ was put towards finding better methods of freeing people from nicotine addiction.

[iconoclastNYC]

24. State money doesn't buy bombs. N/T

[Gregorian]

37. Oh.

Thanks. I suppose I am not cut out to pay attention to politics. I try. It just doesn't work. And I spend most of my time doing it.

[Toots]

9. Sometimes California is smart and sometimes they aren't

Ahnold being an example of one of them...

[Jacobin]

11. roll your own

[Endangered Specie]

12. Im still on the fence on this..

Id love to see people stop smoking, but I believe in the freedom for people to choose what they do with their bodies.
I hate second hand smoke (and it does affect me), but Im all for assissted suicide if thats what people want.


:shrug:

[Boomer]

25. Smokers risk their own lives....

....whereas drunk drivers have a nasty habit killing innocent bystanders. So why aren't we asking for prohibitive taxes on beer and alcohol?

Both are addictive drugs, both incur medical costs borne by the public, but it's "trendy" to hate smokers rather than people who drink.

[NorthernSpy]

13. we HAVE to do this -- it's for the Children!

Guess it's time for another shakedown of one of our society's favorite scapegoats.

:eyes:


And, ooh... just look at how they plan to distribute the money:

Hospital emergency care services: 36 percent

Children's health insurance: 18 percent

Cancer, heart and asthma prevention and control programs: 13 percent

Tobacco control, education, enforcement: 8 percent

Funding for Proposition 10 programs (early childhood health care and education): 7 percent

Medical research: 5 percent

Nursing education: 4 percent

Community clinics: 3 percent

Emergency physicians: 3 percent

Prostate cancer treatment: 1 percent

Tobacco cessation services: 1 percent

Physician education fund: less than 1 percent

Administrative costs: less than 1 percent

C'mon -- just how much of the tab for emergency room use is really the fault of smokers? And how did we come to decide that smokers are to blame for the lack of health insurance among children? This scheme seems to have less to do with offsetting any real costs that smokers impose upon the health care system than with forcing an unpopular social group to shoulder the burden of problems that they did not actually cause.

Pretty unfair, if you ask me.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

17. I venture a very small percentage

But they have such a cash cow, taxing people who are addicted to the substance. It is downright evil if you ask me. Junk food tax would make me SO happy... I don't eat the stuff, so I would be thrilled to see the junk food eating hypocrites, who villainize smokers and call them insulting names, get their due...

[Kixel]

41. If all smokers quit...

The fact that most smokers are lower income is bothersome, too. It's not smart, but as a smoker, I understand how hard it is to quit. The idea of taxing people who can't afford the extra tax, well, it's sad.

Hopefully this will be a New Years resolution I stick to, but I can actually afford the nasty habit.

[NorthernSpy]

47. I'm not a smoker, but I loathe seeing people picked on and scapegoated...

The vilification of smokers is like the arbitrary hyperfocus on the alleged failings of fat people -- whom I also enjoy defending.

It's not that members of scapegoated populations impose no costs on society; rather, it's that everyone's behavior and existence impose some kind of cost on others, and that the accusatory focus on these socially-approved scapegoats is arbitrary, excessive, and unjust.


By the way, we actually used to have a junkfood tax in my state. It was supposed to be a temporary thing to cover an unexpectedly large budget shortfall from when our last Republican governor (hopefully our last Republican governor ever!) put us in the red.

And -- surprise -- the junkfood tax really did turn out to be temporary. It was repealed when circumstances improved.

While it existed, everyone disliked it immensely, even though we all saw the need. Unfortunately, our experience with the junkfood tax didn't inspire us to be more understanding of smokers (I believe the tobacco products excise tax was recently doubled to $2 per pack.)


(edit: fixed typos)

[eowyn_of_rohan]

72. Well said...

It's not that members of scapegoated populations impose no costs on society; rather, it's that everyone's behavior and existence impose some kind of cost on others, and that the accusatory focus on these socially-approved scapegoats is arbitrary, excessive, and unjust.

I have tried with so little success to get this point across. I've been told I am off subject if I give examples of the many ways (besides smoking) that people's behavior affects each others' health. Is it that the accusers can't see, or won't admit this? They seem so bigoted...

[High Plains]

48. Thank you.

[keta11]

14. That is nothing. I used to pay $7.50 per pack in

NY two years ago. Even then I was not allowed to smoke in the bar. I had to go outside in the cold in the winter every time I anted to take a puff.

[ronnykmarshall]

15. Good thing we're quittin'!

[Brundle_Fly]

16. Here in Canada

Smokes are about $10.50 a pack...

with the exchange rate and bush messing your dollar up so badly that is still, over $8.75 US

[Jed Dilligan]

18. They were five pounds in Aberdeen

And most places there are so smoky you can hardly see

[Kixel]

42. Right there with you...

[iconoclastNYC]

19. Good. Cheap tabbaco enables children to smoke.

Study after study says that the easiest way to curtail smoking is to raise the price of cigarettes.

But I think what happened in NYC/NYS is that big tabacco lowered the wholesale prices so they woudln't be $8 a pack.

[SoCalDem]

36. Curtail BUYING of ciragettes

Kids will steal them..and when carton prices are elevated enough, they will become FELONS..and off they go into the penal system..

or they will steal money to buy them..

and truckers who transport them will need extra guards to prevent hijacking their rigs..

the more something costs, the bigger risks people will take, to obtain it.

[iconoclastNYC]

83. I challenge your notion

That children will automatically move to stealing cigarettes. Most places I know where cigarettes are sold they are over the counter anyway.

Studies prove that the more tobacco costs the more people quit. It's not like with Herion where people litterally get sick for days when they go without and then will turn to crime to avoid the physical withdrawl. Nicotine is a luxury addiction.

NICE TRY tho.

[triguy46]

87. In OK, they are behind counters or locked up to prevent

a) theft because they are so expensive and b) to keep away from kids. Smoking is a choice. I don't feel the need to enable people to make decisions that have well documented negative costs to society overall.

[SoCalDem]

95. Not a "try"..merely an observation

Teens have ways of getting things they want.. legally or not.. Booze is pretty expensive and illegal for them to havem yet millions of teens can get their hands on just about any kind they might want..in a matter of minutes..

I doubt that there will be roving bands of nicotine-starved teens raiding 7-11s, but they probably have access to Mom's purse for the occasional bit of cash, or given an opportunity, the "liberation" of a pack of cigarettes here and there..

Framing the tobacco-use argument as a way to "protect" the kids is silly.. Kids (I mean teens) experiment, and tobacco has always been one of the tools of experimentation.. Most probably do not become addicted, but if they want cigarettes, they will get them...regardless of the price..

:hi:

[Mountainman]

21. I'm glad I quit way back when!

I think it is wrong to tax an addictive substance. It is hard to quit. You either do quit or pay the price which is not only illness but may be smokes instead of food.

[hogwyld]

22. If they do that

I'll just go to special stores and buy black market cigarettes, or make monthly trips to Nevada. Either way, they won't get another penny our of my tar stained fingers!

[iconoclastNYC]

26. Well your state might come calling.

NYS subpoenaed and got customer lists and billing records for NYS customers buying cigs online from Native American stores and people got nice little bills from the state for all their back taxes.

Suddenly these people are in debt.

You can only cheat the taxman for so long before you get burned.

[High Plains]

49. Yes, you can do it forever...

I spend a lot of time in Washington state, which also has punitive tobacco taxes. But I buy my cigarettes on the Indian reservation, so the state gets not a cent. I also pay cash. There is no record, no mail order records, no credit card receipts. Fuck the greedy Washington state tax man. You know, I would pay a little more in state tax if the difference were minor, but Washington overreached and now it gets nothing from me.

[iconoclastNYC]

81. Very patriotic of you.

I'm sure you are all for offshoring your assets right? I mean why should the greedy IRS get anyof your money. Lord knows nothing good gets done with the money.

Sounds like Republican values to me.

[High Plains]

99. Whatever, dude...

I pay my income taxes and I don't have any assets worth off-shoring.

Do you think its my patriotic duty to pay the highest possible taxes? If so, do you practice what you preach?

You're kinda snotty tonight, ain'tcha?

[hogwyld]

52. There's no records to subpoena

If you go to the store and pay cash. And, I'm sure the black marketeers don't keep a lot of records either. I guess the only risk I run is if I get pulled over for a fruit inspection and they see 100 cartons of cigs. Of course, once Patriot III passes in the future, all money will be traceable to you anyway.

[iconoclastNYC]

82. It's still tax evasion.

I guess you can live with that tho...be sure to add in the cost of gas, depreciation, etc....also add in what what your time is worth (say your hourly wage at work)......for the time it takes to go out of your way....add it up and see how much those cheap cigs are REALLY costing you.

While your at it factor in the medical costs and the 10 years of salary you may miss for dieing early from cig related illnesses. And the pain and suffering you'll inflict upon your family while they watch you die from a horrible illness that you could have prevented.

[Mountainman]

27. Here's the lie in this, they tax smokers to raise money for social causes

and people say good because it will make people quit smoking. But if people quit smoking how will they raise the money for social causes? They don't really expect people to quit, if they did they would get the money from somewhere else.

I think there is something wrong in taxing some group that we don't like because it is easy to get away with it.

In the last few weeks I heard, tax SUV owners, tax land owners, tax hybrid car owners, tax smokers. All the people wanting to tax other people want some social good that they don't already have only they are so elitist they feel that they should not be taxed. Well if you want something then you pay for it too!

[freestyle]

32. Exactly. "Sin" taxes only make money if people keep "sinning"

States count on some proportion of smokers to be hopelessly addicted for these taxes to raise the desired amount of funds. If people stop smoking, the revenues aren't there. This is good for the former smokers, but exposes the cynical calculations of the government. I don't smoke, but this is bullshit and targets one group of people to pay for services that should be a collective responsibility. All citizens would benefit from healthier children, etc. All should pay.

[triguy46]

88. In all honesty, its the only chance we have

Try raising taxes for social causes lately? Not likely to happen. This, like lotteries, put the states in a tough position of having to de facto endorse negative behaviors in order to achieve so common good.

[slackmaster]

29. This is another turd pie in the sky

I am against smoking, abhor the tobacco industry, and believe everything should be done to keep (please read "discourage") people from using tobacco products.

My problem with this idea is that the underlying cost-benefit analysis suffers from the same problems as just about every money-making scheme the California legislature, federal government, and well-meaning initiative writers come up with:

1. It creates a conflict of interest by relying on people continuing to engage in negative behaviors in order to provide financing for indisputably good causes. An obvious analogy is the California Lottery, which was supposed to raise billions of dollars for the schools. The schools are still suffering from underfunding, and the state has made itself a locus of gambling, which hurts poor people and those with impulse control problems. Another example of this logic breakdown is the US government continuing to subsidize tobacco farmers in the Southeast. We'd be better off paying them NOT to grow the stuff.

2. I would bet a pint of Guinness Stout the estimate of a $2.27 billion annual take was made without taking into account the inevitable shift of consumers from OTC retail sales to mail and Internet tobacco. California is famous for failing to consider the unintended consequences of tax increases. Why would anyone pay $6.50 when they can get packs (by the carton) for $3.65 from out of state?

http://www.tobaccobymail.com/american_spirit.htm

[sam sarrha]

31. this is denying the right of the poor to the addiction of their choice, i

believe there should be a Nicotine Stamps for the poor who can't afford to support their addiction and bloat the cost to Insurance Premiums.. and die an unnatural agonizing death and be a burden to their families and the nation..
:rant: :sarcasm:

[Sven77]

33. less tax on the poor

the rich and big corporations pay hardly anything in taxes. i can only imagine what percentage the poor pay in cigarettes tax and lottery tickets.

[Dutch]

35. Good. n/t

[Exiled in America]

38. I'm a smoker, and I support this. (nt)

[agincourt]

39. Now if only,

they'd tax corporations and CEOs who screw our country over at some measure like that.

[chknltl]

43. oh darn...nt

[Ron Mexico]

44. universal children's health insurance, emergency-room care, prevention...

...my ass. I'd support this if I believed the billing, but I don't. It's a money grab, and the less money Ah-nold has to play with the happier I am.

[saigon68]

59. They will never spend the $$$$$$$$$$$$on this

They will hire more police to fill the "new" jails with black men

[Megahurtz]

51. Oh Well................

:nopity:

I'm glad I don't smoke.

[The Wielding Truth]

53. Why does anyone smoke knowing the harm it does?

[pinniped]

54. You could take an eye out with those things.

If I was a smoker, my cigs would come from Gold Rush Casino at the CA/NV stateline.

I think it will pass.

[Daphne08]

57. This is insanity! n/t

[MsUSA]

61. Boy am I glad I quit......226 days and counting.

I would have had to get a second job just for those stupid cancer sticks. I'm nicotine free!! :bounce:

[CreekDog]

63. Bad Public Policy

Funding long-term needs based on a declining revenue stream.

I think people should quit and not start smoking too, but, I don't think funding our liberal programs more and more from smokers is wise.

[progressivebydesign]

70. Congrats on being nicotene-free!!! YAY!! n/t

[bbgrunt]

67. outrageous and ridiculous.

[superconnected]

68. In other words it will be cheaper for smokers to buy street drugs.

Is pot cheaper now?

I don't know but gee, they're making cigarettes unattainable to the poor. Cigarettes are bad for their health, but how much OTHER pleasure in life do they get?

What's next, do they tax overweight people for being addicted to food? Insurance can go up for them and a whole slew of medical problems can be listed.

Then who should be the pariah after the overweight people? Oh yeah, drunk drivers, felons, immigrants, islamic people?

Sorry guys, I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, but I don't like the way this group is being treated. Sure there's truth to whats being said health-wise, but still, it's programing everyone that it's okay to attack people and make pariahs out of groups. The republicans would be proud.

[jseankil]

79. What a wacky post

"...they're making cigarettes unattainable to the poor. Cigarettes are bad for their health, but how much OTHER pleasure in life do they get?"

Are are you serious when you are saying this or are you joking around?

And then you jump from smokers to Muslims???

Last I checked I don't get sick from being around Muslims while I do when I'm around smokers and your saying we shouldn't raise are voices in alarm over such a group??

What an odd post overall.

[superconnected]

98. "And then you jump from smokers to Muslims???"

Actually, I do not jump from smokers to muslims. I logically follow that creating pariah out of groups of people will lead to doing it to more groups.

[progressivebydesign]

69. Great time to quit! Put the money you save away for something great..

If you quit, tuck away that daily expense and watch it turn into something cool for yourself... a trip? clothes?

[gulfcoastliberal]

73. Well it appears you can buy cigarettes online.

If your habit is so important, your fix is just a click away.

[Roon]

74. I quit last Feb.

I was rolling my own up to the end and it was still costing me 40.00 a month to smoke. Quitting smoking is very painful and I will never smoke again for that reason.

[Carolab]

76. Bullshit. Tax the boozers instead. They are a bigger health risk.

Just look at GW Bush.

[mechanical mandible]

77. Liberals like Big Government just like Republicrats

[iconoclastNYC]

84. Alcohol is taxed

And in a lot of states you have to go to a special store to buy them.

Historical Alcohol has been more regulated than Tobacco because big Tobacco bought off more politicans.

[Carolab]

89. So are cigarettes already taxed! Raise the booze tax instead!

n/t

[iconoclastNYC]

90. Because you smoke but you don't drink?

Whatever dude.

[Carolab]

97. I do neither. I just think it's unfair that smokers always take the hit.

And drinkers don't.

[triguy46]

86. $4750/year for the 2 pack a day folks.

Ya gotta wonder if its that much fun. That has the appearance of a boat payment to me.

[olddad56]

91. that is cheap, a two years supply of pot would cost you more...

and not kill you.

[zanne]

93. Don't they worry about the crime rate?

If they make cigarettes too expensive, aren't robbery rates going to go up? Just a thought.

[triguy46]

94. Then I wouldn't be wanting a boat... n/t

[Ernesto]

104. Hardly.........

@ $200 an oz., a smart pot invester could easily be "holding" for a year.
(don't ask don't tell.......)

[olddad56]

92. I'd be all for it, if they used the revenue responsibilly.....(more)

In fact, I'd be all for decriminalizing other serious drugs and taxing them at the same rate. If the revenue was used to improve our schools and decrease health costs. Look at the burden that smokers and drinkers place on our health care systems once smokers and drinkers start developing health issues related to their addictions. Biggest drawback I see is political graft and the ensuing black market. Unlike Pot, Nicotine has no redeeming qualities.

[Raine]

96. Good, I'll vote YES on it. nt

:thumbsup:

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

100. I'll vote for it- -addictive poison-death- disease- tax hard & tax often

yeeah--make it so damn expensive people will at least cut down if not just quit--

[Sin]

101. Cool :)

Now this is nothing but a growth black market.
If i were the criminal element of society id jump on this train and quick with people wanting to hit smokers this hard theres nothing but profit to be made if ya sell it in bulk :)

+ I haven't bought pre rolled smokes unless i really needed to in years most smokers now are just switching over to the canned tobacco that costs id say more then 50% less then buying packs of smokes.

Keep on raising it theres always going to be a way to get around it.

[Jose Diablo]

102. Say, it's getting were it would be profitable to smuggle cigarettes

into California. I wonder how many smokes can be packed into a tractor trailer.

[NuttyFluffers]

103. no more fucking propositions! please! i'm getting tired!

i feel like i'm doing all the fucking work instead of the politicians i put in freaking office! dammit, can't someone put up a proposition to put a moratorium on propositions?! no more! no freaking more! gawd, i'd even accept a cap of like... 1 or 2 propositions per election cycle. i'm sick of voting every year and having to read up on every new fucking thing! enough already!... my tv is getting dusty... :evilfrown:

PS: i find just about all regressive taxation stupid at face value. this is just more egregious because there's plenty of progressive taxation being passed over for this. whatever, the stupidity parade of america marches on...