Posted on 04/20/2017 5:07:21 AM PDT by kevcol
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that cigarette prices in the city would go up $2.50 to $13 which, de Blasio bragged, would be "the highest price in the country."
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Council Member Fernando Cabrera, who introduced the bill to create the licensing requirement for e-cigarette retailers, described the proposal as "a major step to limit the use of e-cigarettes, which are dangerous nicotine delivery systems that can lead to nicotine and potentially drug addiction."
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
The key is to tax vices only to the point that it is not an attractive market for the mob and cartels and other scum to enter in to.
I can put at least 10 CASES of cigarettes in my trunk and drive to NYC in 5 hours. At 50 cartons/case I could make $3,500 in one run!
This is a problem municipalities all across the country are facing.
If you recall, the first cigarette taxes enacted after the tobacco settlement in he 1990s were targeted to pay for health costs related to smoking. The argument was that as people quit, health costs would decrease and the taxes would no longer be necessary.
Then it was discovered that A.) smokers don't really cost more in health care (in fact, it can be argued that by dying earlier, they actually cost less) and B.) there's a HUUUGE windfall of money coming in that demands to be spent!
And everyone wanted a piece of that windfall.
It wasn't long before tobacco taxes were funding a myriad of social programs that have nothing to do with smoking, and still needed to be funded as smoking rates decreased. And that's where we're finding ourselves now, and why New Yorkers are paying $13 for a pack of cigarettes.
I recall when a pack cost 10 cents, dollar for a carton.
I regret smoking, even after having quit for over 30 years I have a tinge of COPD.
Based on the proven health implications, I’d like to see the nation just get rid of tobacco altogether. I’ll likely get flamed for this, but tobacco smoking does represent a slow suicide for many, many people.
There is no easy solution, as tobacco will go underground just like alcohol did during Prohibition and like illegal drugs are now.
The answer is right there in the article: e-cigs.
So dangerous that they must be taxed! /s
Fyi: other “dangerous” nicotine delivery systems include tomatoes, spinach,and green peppers.
In that same year, 2015, over 50,000 people died from drug overdose. Heroin has been getting cheaper and easier to obtain.
That is a very attractive business adventure.
Only 70-year old hippies are still smoking weed. The kids today are vaping or eating it.
Maybe the well to do kids are, but I see plenty of stay at home, millennial pajama boys buying nuggets by the gram to stuff in their pipes while their girlfriends gas up the car.
Yes. But if selling loosies didn’t have to involve police force, he might be alive today. Ridiculous situation lib politicians put cops in.
Make every smoker a smuggler. Great idea.
It isn’t just bootleggers who benefit from the high taxes. If neighboring states or counties have lower taxes, they will benefit too. When I stopped smoking cigarettes about 10 years ago, I was paying under $3 a pack in Indiana, a mile away from my home in Chicago. Stores in Chicago were selling them for $7 or $8 dollars. Today a pack goes for about $5 in Indiana and $11 in Chicago. There is a flourishing smoke shop business just over the line in Indiana, and gas stations benefit too. And speaking of gas stations —high fuel taxes in Chicago and Illinois make gas stations few and far between on the south side of Chicago. They used to be there, but they went out of business. There are plenty of gas stations just over the line in Indiana.
I get an off-brand for $3.15 a pack.
Good in-depth article about the illegal cigarette trade in NY: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/smuggled-untaxed-cigarettes-are-everywhere-in-new-york-city-6717621
“... By law, the minimum price for a pack of premium-brand cigarettes in New York City is $10.50, but averages are closer to $12.50. For a pack-a-day smoker, that adds up to about $375 per month. But out-of-state cigarettes — like the ones for sale at the corner store in Long Island City — typically go for $7 or $8....”
The smug looks on the faces of his two sycophants is disgusting.
My point is simply if selling loosies wasn’t so important to liberal politicians, who made it against the law because they LOVE money, no one would be approached by a cop at all. This is not to exonerate stupid behavior by stupid people.
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The decades-long campaign to ostracize smokers has worked. I’d imagine the rate of smoking among college-educated professionals is practically zero. Today, smoking is almost entirely a habit relegated to the poor and blue collar working class. And these are the people shouldering the burden of the $13 pack of cigarettes needed to fund the various programs that have come to depend on tobacco taxes.
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And whom will be the next group to pariah?? Govt can *never* go w/o its ‘take’ (though having done NOTHING, but put hurdles\regs\red-tape in those that DO...but always 1st w/ their hand out for ‘their cut’), just think of the CHILDREN when the school funds go to $0. Whom will be filling the coffers? Junk food? Soda? Non-organic?
As another had noted, the mafia, or others willing to take the risk, will fill the niche of need.
Guess being a sanctuary city for the criminal invaders, they’ll have the ‘extra’ police.
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