Barely Squeaking Bye - BSB

i think the rant comes from the amount of price increase via taxes. a weeks worth of my brand of tobacco in a can and the tubes used to make the cigarettes now totals $13.72. if you add $31 dollars of taxes onto that, the new total is $44.72. what is currently an affordable vice costing $54.88 per month will become an expensive habit costing $178.88 per month. that means a smoker who once enjoyed a cheap source of tobacco will now pay $1488 per year in additional taxes. if there were an increase of taxes per individual of $1488 in any other area, everyone would certainly be up in arms.

i will acknowledge there has been no tax on these products in the past. i would support paying some tax, but an increase via taxes amounting to well over 200% of the cost of the product is rediculous.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

i should also query that if this heavy-handed and excessive taxation results in millions of smokers quitting the habit, how will the child healthcare program survive without the revenue?

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

Smoking is a really nasty habit that is very bad for your health, but if you have to smoke, why not grow your own tobacco? It will grow in almost every part of the Lower '48 (probably not in most of Alaska, though), and presumably in Hawaii as well. Don't give them your hard-earned money in taxes.

Kathleen

Actually, I have been growing some of my own tobacco for about three years now... it's a lot of work to do without chemical insecticides. During growing season I'm out at least every other day picking bugs.

When I move this spring one of the first things I'll do is plant my tobacco patch.

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"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid".

Maybe they should put that $23 tax on a bag of sugar or salt. I smoke but do not use sugar or salt! I like to smoke, enjoy it and do not feel I should be singled out! This tax is very unfair, just wait, this is only the beginning! Next thing will be growing your own tobacco will be a Prison sentence! It is just wrong, very wrong!

The last cigs I bought was in mid Nov. 1998 for $12.53 carton. They were puting on a big tax then that was going to run the price up to $18.00 and I was going to revolt. The new tax was going into effect on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I didn't have to work on Thanksgiving day so I made up my mind that I would stop smoking then. I got up on Thanksgiving morning with the intention of not smoking at all. Well, I did smoke part of five cigs over the next four days. After that four day battle, I won.

The thing that I used to overcome was the fact that I had a four year old granddaughter that wouldn't have anything to do with me if I had a cig going. Any time I started to light up, she would take off.

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Keep your SP101 handy!

Yes, THAT is the issue. What will be next??

I am an ex-smoker who knows how hard it was to quit, I also know it is terrible for your health and the leading cause of lung cancer.

I also have to agree with Bubbahead and homesteadforty, what is next? I bought a package of Beer nuts and on the package it said "Please snack responsibly" I don't know if this was a joke because the nuts have the word beer in their name but I'm afraid to eat them, and who's business is it if I do eat the peanuts irresponsibly?

On the other hand my neighbor is in jepardy of going into foreclosure but won't stop getting acryllic nails put on and pedicures regularly BUT she will smoke the no frills brand of cigarettes, right after she takes her inhaler and then her nebulizer breathing treatment. Go Figure..

It seems some people have an addiction to judging others.
Its a total bummer trying to quit smaking, we did it in 1989, and its some thing I never want to put myself in a position to have to do again.
Walk a mile in another persons shoes, I dare you!

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squashnut & bassketcher

Champagne D Argent, White New Zealand & Californian Cross Rabbits

I am a smoker and I have tried to quit a number of times. The longest I've gone is 18 months. Twice. And you ask... Why would you start again???!!! That's not an easy question to answer and I won't try here... I think I'd run out of room. For some people it's easy to quit. My bil decided after smoking for years that he was going to quit. Next morning he woke up and he was done with it. I had to fight for every day of those 18 months. I sympathize deeply with anyone who has to give up food or other things to feed their addiction or vice, whichever you'd prefer to call it. It's an addiction I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I talked to my parents about this and both of them have said that it seems that cigarettes today are much more addictive then they were back when they were smoking them (60s and early 70s).

Don't know how accurate the studies were, but I've read that back in the day it was just pure tobacco essentially. Not so addictive. Nowadays there are so many various chemicals mixed in that in reality you are addicted to the chemicals, not the tobacco. Supposedly Big Tobacco planned it that way.

Socialism is very expensive- they're gonna have to get the money from somewhere.....

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"What one generation tolerates, the next generation embraces." -John Wesley

Some addicts will go without food or even shelter to get their drug of choice. Nicotine the the MOST addictive substance known on the planet next to heroin/opiates. And to make matters worse cigarette manufacturers add ingredients that are also addictive to the cigarettes and produce them in such a way as to deliver the nicotine in varying amounts through the burn rate.
Tobacco has long been a part of human civilization, but the products that are sold now bear little resemblance to the tobacco that was consumed 200 years ago.

BTW, when I was going to university one of my professors did his doctorate on the tobacco mosaic virus back in the 60's. During that time he worked (or maybe did an internship?) at Philip Morris Co. He said at that time the company was experimenting with manipulating the nicotine amount in the tobacco plants. They were growing them with increasingly more concentrated amounts of nicotine. Now the government (not sure which branch) regulates how much nicotine is in the cigarettes, but I am sure that it is a lot more than naturally occurs.

I've always been able to Smoke or Not Smoke.
I smoked cigarettes for 7 years. I quit overnight.
I smoked a pipe or cigars for 10 years. I quit overnight.

I went for a few more years after having been quit 5 years, only smoking occasionally. I smoked as I wanted to, generally a pipe or cigar, here & there,
for several years.
DSW & DODoc prevailed on me to put it aside, altogether. So I did.
I guess I just don't understand the Addiction thing.

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Be Intense, always. But always take the time to
Smell the Roses, give a Hug, Really Listen, or
Jump to Defend your Friends & What you Believe in.
'Til later, Have Fun,
Old John

I now pay $1.60 for a pack of tubes. If it goes up $7 that will make the increase over 500%. The price of tobacco is almost tripleing.
That is just plain unfair.
Yep I am being forced to quit. Lovely.
There is no way I am going to be able to afford it.
Now throw in a few more hundred thousand me's into the mix.
Yall watch out when Im driving around town having a nicotine fit.
So what the heck is the point of taxing this stuff beyond the ability to afford to use it?
After nobody can afford it anymore, they wont get the tax they want from it.
When What ever more politally correct thing they choose to replace this with is increased in price 500% Then there will be an uproar. But not now eh?

I'll go along with that. I smoked for 20 years - quit 17 years ago after umpteen tries. Hardest thing I ever did.

The correct motivation is needed & it differs from person to person. For me it was realizing I was putting my smokes ahead of good nutrition for my kids.

My ds says he'll probably get fat & unhealthy when he moves out because I never have "good" food (read junk food) in the house.

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God bless,
Bonnie
Opportunity Farm
Northeast Washington

"While we have the opportunity, let us do good to all." Galatians 6:10

homesteadforty, I believe today's addiction culture is more judgemental and less compassionate.

When tobacco, alcohol, drugs, over eating, porn, chasing, or whatever were considered vices, we affirmed the human dignity that says "you can overcome."

When we label things addiction, incurable, with only hope of forever "recovering", we tell a person they are crippled by this thing and cannot win.

But of course, the recovery industry can win big time as can the purveyors of whatever the addict is addicted to.

This is an effort by the government to modify behavior of the citizenry by using taxation as punishment.

While some people don't mind when it is just smokers being punished, wait till they try to modify your behavior by punishing you by taxation for ...food...drink....ammunition...driving...

That is not the function of government. They are supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Who do they think they are to punish the people?

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

This is true to an extent. I used to work for a man who was a research chemist for RJ Reynolds. He commented the chemicals they put in tobacco increase the intensity of your addiction to nicotine. He explained it as being similar to the difference in snorting cocaine and smoking crack cocaine. What the chemicals do is make your body absorb the nicotine much more quickly and more thoroughly.

So yes, they are more addictive now than in the past without all the added chemicals.