Posted on 08/03/2012 6:43:39 PM PDT by Drango
While more Americans than ever before are quitting their cigarette habit, a growing number are also turning to large cigars and pipes, suggesting that gains in curbing tobacco consumption may be more elusive than previously thought.
The findings were outlined in a report released on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall consumption of smoked tobacco products declined 27.5 percent between 2000 and 2011, but use of noncigarette smoked tobacco products increased by a whopping 123 percent in that same time.
One major culprit for the trend is likely price, particularly in the latter part of the decade as Americans grappled with a weak economy and high unemployment.
In 2009, a federal excise tax was enacted and as a result, pipe tobacco, loose tobacco and cigars were taxed at a significantly lower rate than cigarettes. Responses by the tobacco industry to the tax and resulting price shifts have further compounded the problem, according to the CDC.
"Cigarette-like (tobacco products), formerly thought of as small cigars, have been modified slightly by the manufacturers .... so that they can be taxed at the lower rate," said Terry Pechacek, CDC's Associate director of science, and an author on the report.
As a result, such small cigars which resemble cigarettes are far cheaper, selling for about $1.40 per pack versus $5, Pechacek said. Younger consumers in particular are responding to the shift in pricing and consumption patterns.
"The rise in cigar smoking, which other studies show is a growing problem among youth and young adults, is cause for alarm," ...
McAfee cited a recent report from the U.S. surgeon general, which showed that nearly all smokers start before they are 26 years old, making young consumers the most important target for stopping the epidemic.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Econ 101. An increase in the price of an object results in a decrease in demand.
Sometimes a cigar is a cigar, said Julius Caesar.
And sometimes it’s a great smoke.
mmmmmmm...Monte Cristo #3. Time to order some more.
That is the only thing that zero did for me...I refused to voluntarily fund his agenda and quit cold turkey after 25 years of smoking. Oh wait..no I flipping did that. I might have been encouraged by hatred of O...but I did it without help from anyone but my very patient husband. I hope that no one is encouraged to go back to smoking a slightly lesser taxed nicotine delivery system since the money will still go to the same place.
Yes folks, they really are that stupid....
"You must choose between me and your cigar."
BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885.
Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,
For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.
We quarrelled about Havanaswe fought o'er a good cheroot,
And I knew she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.
Open the old cigar-boxlet me consider a space;
In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.
Maggie is pretty to look atMaggie's a loving lass,
But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pass.
There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay;
But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away
Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown
But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town!
Maggie, my wife at fiftygrey and dour and old
With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!
And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are,
And Love's torch stinking and stale, like the butt of a dead cigar
The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket
With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket!
Open the old cigar-boxlet me consider a while.
Here is a mild Manilathere is a wifely smile.
Which is the better portionbondage bought with a ring,
Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?
Counsellors cunning and silentcomforters true and tried,
And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?
Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,
This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,
With only a Suttee's passionto do their duty and burn.
This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,
Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.
The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,
When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again.
I will take no heed to their raiment, nor food for their mouths withal,
So long as the gulls are nesting, so long as the showers fall.
I will scent 'em with best vanilla, with tea will I temper their hides,
And the Moor and the Mormon shall envy who read of the tale of my brides.
For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between
The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.
And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,
But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year;
And the gloom of my bachelor days is flecked with the cheery light
Of stumps that I burned to Friendship and Pleasure and Work and Fight.
And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,
But the only light on the marshes is the Will-o'-the-Wisp of Love.
Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire?
Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it, shall I follow the fitful fire?
Open the old cigar-boxlet me consider anew
Old friends, and who is Maggie that I should abandon you?
A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.
Light me another CubaI hold to my first-sworn vows.
If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for Spouse!
Rudyard Kipling.
well played!
Yes, there is tobacco growing in my garden as we speak. And hanging in the kitchen....
/johnny
Your favorite vice is particularly nasty to me, unless it involves lime jello and twins.
/johnny
/johnny
It’s true though that today’s cigarettes are much healthier, for lack of a better word, than those of 50-60 years ago.
Actually cheap cigars are nasty, quality cigars have a very nice aroma.
No worries there.
Some people disagree with you
Understood
Your favorite vice is particularly nasty to me, unless it involves lime jello and twins.
My favorite vice involves a juicy piece of prime rib (medium rare),asparagus with butter and nice baked potato.But any cigar smoker who moved into any of the condo units that abut mine would be taken to court on a petition by me to order them to stop.
The additive? A close relative to carpet glue.
I won't smoke commercial cigarettes. I'll buy tobacco from farms where I've visited, or grow my own, and make my own.
I bulk buy clean tubes without carpet glue from an importer that gets them from France. That sucks.
/johnny
In some parts of the real United States, folks don't live in condos, or take their neighbors to court over seegars.
No harm, no foul, if you want to live in a police state like that.
Count me out.
/johnny
For me, it's Partagas #1 or De Nobili Kings.
It's the tobacco taxes. That's why they cost so much. Avoiding anything with an attached tax is a good thing. More people should make it a "lifestyle choice".
We can survive without the democrats money, but the democrats can't survive without ours. Starve that beast!!!
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