Smokers stock up before tax increase: 39-cent hike goes into effect today

Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin ^ | 04/03/02 | William Moyer

[Phantom Lord]

Business was booming Tuesday at Roger's Market in Endicott as smokers stopped for an extra pack of cigarettes to avoid today's double-digit state tax increase.

"People have been stocking up," said Roger Evanek, owner of the convenience store on North Street.

[Phantom Lord]

Start buying them online or at the reservations. Smokers in the Triple Cities (Endicott, Binghamton, Johnson City) and the surrounding areas will not have a problem driving the 1 hour north to Syracuse to purchase their smokes tax free on the reservation.

I knew Roger when I lived in Endicott and would purchase my bait and other fishing supplies from his store. And Roger's Market is the typical "corner store" and the type of store that will be hardest hit by cigarette tax hikes and the resulting reduced sales of said product and the other products that people purchase when they frequent his store.

[Phantom Lord]

Bump

[GailA]

Does the tax hike apply to pipe tobacco, loose tobacco (roll your own) and cigars? If not these are alternatives. When cigs went up over the fed tax hike hubby switched to Swisher Sweets lites--little cigars, which come 20 to a pack and are the same size as cigarettes and don't seem to have as many additives as regular cigarettes do. The cost on average $1.29-$1.69 per pack depending on where you buy them.

[mewzilla]

I guess I've spent too much time in hospitals with loved ones who smoked. Couldn't folks just use the increase as an added reason to quit?

[Phantom Lord]

You know as well as I do that the tax hike is not about getting people to quit. Its about one thing... MONEY

Do you support the "twinkie tax" proposals on fatty food and soda because people are fat? After all, obesity is a bigger health problem in this country than smoking according to former surgeon general Satcher.

[Just another Joe]

And just wait till they bump it agina, and again, and again, and then the black market starts up with turf wars and all.

[Phantom Lord]

Related Thread... Indian kiosks put tax-free cigarettes online

[killerw]

Yep, it's just a matter of time. You can count on it.

[Gabz]

I'm glad you brought up the "twinkie tax."

the question of the day at MSNBC is "Are Smokers Being Treated UnFairly?" of course the answer is a resounding no - except for the nanny do-gooders.

The segment they did about an hour ago had a representative of the smokers organization FORCES and one from an anti-smoker group (ANR or ASH, not sure) People like this make me gag.

[Gabz]

They saw it happen in Canada a fews years ago - the Canadians at least had the sense to cut the taxes back to a reasonable level to stop the carnage.....but typically, they have started creeping back up.

Ray Domkus, of FORCES who was on MSNBC this morning had a very good point:

Smokers are treated as second class citizens---they want us to buy the cigarettes, but won't let us smoke them anywhere.

[Great Dane]

LOL, I really stock up, we are waiting for another $5 a carton increase, I roll my own and buy 8 200gr cans of loose tobacco every time we go to costco, I now have about 25 cans in our garage.

[b4its2late]

surrounding areas will not have a problem driving the 1 hour north to Syracuse to purchase their smokes tax free on the reservation.

Or over the internet.......

[Great Dane]

#4....... One might suspect you have spent time in hospitals with non-smokers as well.

[Psycho_Bunny]

People die. I'd rather die of lung cancer at 60, than die in diapers and drooling all over myself at 85.

[mewzilla]

You're right. But aside from an overweight diabetic who had a fatal stoke, the other were folks in their eighties and nineties who'd lived long and happy lives. So far the smokers in our families haven't made it that long.

[mewzilla]

And your loved ones might just wish for a long and happy life for you. We have family in their eighties and nineties who, aside from some physical frailties, are doing very well. Interestingly enough, none of them have ever smoked.

[Phantom Lord]

Interestingly enough, none of them have ever smoked.

Was it high tobacco taxes that caused them to not smoke?

[Joe Hadenuf]

People die. I'd rather die of lung cancer at 60, than die in diapers and drooling all over myself at 85.

Or arguing with telephone poles and lamp shades.

[Psycho_Bunny]

So?