[markomalley]

Not that I'm advocating tax avoidance or anything, but face it -- if you're out of state and can buy ten cartons of cigarettes @$30 a carton when cigarettes back home cost $70 a carton, it's awfully tempting. Doing so could pay for a rental car for the weekend, pay for gas for the rental car, plus a hotel room plus a hundred bucks saved. Double the number of cartons and you can save a tidy amount.

In other words, I would have a hard time blaming anybody for doing it (not that I'd EVER do anything like that myself, mind you)

[jakerobins]

Reminds me of a bumpersticker....

[Ben Mugged]

Next Mexico will become a major smuggler of tobacco products into the United States.

[Safrguns]

Where do I go to buy $30.00 per carton cigs?

Can they be bought cheaper?

[pnh102]

Stupid. Meanwhile real criminals walk free.

[Secret Agent Man]

You really want cigarette tax avoidance - and be totally legal about it?

Buy an e-cigarette (the cigarette and nicotine packs), you’ll be bypassing that altogether, pay a lot less and be able to use it in all non-smoking places because it is not a cigarette, it does not produce smoke. No second hand smoke, no odor. It will pay for itself in about 2-3 weeks, then after that you’ll be saving a lot of money. the nicotine packs are equiv to 20 cigs (a pack) and cost $2 per cartridge, compared to 6-7 bucks per pack of real cigs.

[JoanneSD]

We have a large border with Mexico, and all have duty free shops, this side of the border.. buy a carton run it across, and your home free, declare it. and do it again.. I know people who are making thousands a month doing this.. San Diego is lucky we have two border crossing with multiple duty free shops..You are allowed 200 cigarettes in 30 days, but ICE does not keep track, so it is good money in this recession

[GOP_Lady]

[warsaw44]

can someone freep mail the full article to me? I can not open WSJ sites for some reason. The web page freezes up and will not load. Been going on for awhile now.

[SERE_DOC]

$15 dollars a carton, yea Baby that is the ticket.

Uganda the land of cheap smokes

[twigs]

Actually, terrorists are using this to gain funds.

[SpaceBar]

"We do not want to have our tax laws ignored..."

- King George III of England

[umgud]

One day I had way too much time on my hands and tried to figure out how many packs of cigarettes would fit in a large semi-trailer. I figured the trailer (48'l x 8'6"w x 9'h) would be about 6,342,216 cubic inches and each pack would be about 6.534 cubic inches.

Just roughing the numbers for an order of magnitude, the trailer would hold roughly 971,107 packs of cigs. @ $5 each, we're talking $4,855,537 smackeroo's. A guy could get rich just hijacking one of these loads.

[Nathan Zachary]

it's only going to get worse as governments keep increasing "sin" taxes on alcohol and tobacco. They have already begun their attack on electronic cigarettes as well, even though they contain no tobbaco at all, and do not produce "smoke" (it's a vapor)> Tobacco laws were too hastily written and anti smoking campaigns declaring the evils of smoking have put the government into a corner, because e cigarette juice does not deliver any harmfull toxins, only pure clean and harmless nicotine vapor, which in itself is not harmfull, only addictive. The government attacking electronic cigarettes just proves that the government doesn't give a crap about your health, nor do they want people to quit smoking. They only want the revenue from those addicted to cigarette smoking, which they mistakenly thought was the only delivery system for nicotine until e-cigs were invented.

Attacking electronic cigarettes shows us the government is really worried that people will quit smoking, seriously cutting into their revenues from tobbacco. Myself, I've been using e cigarettes for almost 3 years now; it's how I quit smoking a 2 pack a day habit, and between my wife and I, saving over $7000 a year in what was mostly taxes to governments on tobacco. We don't even use e-liquid containing nicotine anymore, we just enjoy "vaping" they various flavors we make ourselves using the base ingredients contained in commercial e cigarette juice, which is mostly propylene glycol (usp), a commonly used ingredient in food products, and/or vegetable glycerine (soy based) plus whatever concentrated extract oil flavoring ( LorAnn flovorings) we like. If you have never been able to quit smoking but want to, invest in a electronic cigatette and a couple bottles of e juice. (joye510 kit/manual batteries are very good) Best under $100 investment you'll ever make. With just a tiny wee bit of determination, you WILL be able to quit smoking. Alternatively, you can use a e juice flavoring which doesn't have nicotine added, and use a nicotine patch while using the e cig to replace the handling and smoking cigarettes part of the nasty habit.

[Richard Kimball]

He estimates that his state is losing "hundreds of thousands of dollars" annually.

Wow, that could nearly pay for a whole bureaucrat.

[AFreeBird]

Gee idiot pols, haven’t you figured out the repurcussions of punative taxation yet?

[Buckeye McFrog]

where are your good ol’ neighborhood Mafia guys when you need them?

I see iPhone now has an app to help you find your local pot dealer...can we adapt it to bootleg cigarettes?

I am a lifelong non-smoker, but would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to see Government at all levels take one up the shorts on this issue.

[torchthemummy]

Not that I'm advocating tax avoidance or anything, but face it -- if you're out of state and can buy ten cartons of cigarettes @$30 a carton when cigarettes back home cost $70 a carton, it's awfully tempting.

When in Rome...buy as the Romans would.

If you go across a state border to buy smokes just make sure you go to a restaurant so that you can say that the cigs were just an impulse buy.

[The Great RJ]

I am certain organized crime has noted the potential profits of supplying consumers with a LEGAL product at lower prices and are responding just like they did during Prohibition. States are foolish to think that raising the price of cigarettes through confiscatory taxation will increase revenue. In response to higher prices the market will always buy less of the product or seek lower cost substitutes. How much will states now have to spend to collect their cigarette taxes?

[domeika]

Gee whiz.....put onerous taxes on a product to such a degree that it's attractive to black market peddlers and buyers.....whoda thunkit.

Idiots.

[2harddrive]

Does anyone GROW their own tobacco yet, under heat lamps in apartments? It WILL happen SOON, you can be sure!