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.
Or over the internet.......
www.tomjonesdrug.com
They are advertising the Nico-pop. Yes, this is correct. Lollipops in whatever flavor you want, laced with nicotine and sugar-free (splenda) for diabetics. It says you can take a few "licks" and store the Lollipop in the Fridgerator for future "fixes"...
No price, tho.
sw
First, when the State of New York realizes less revenue from tobacco taxes than it had expected, there will be pressure to close the "Internet loophole" that lets smart New Yorkers buy their smokes tax-free. You can't really expect a cut in the health programs the tax is supposed to benefit. Those are vital, don't you know?
Look for the Indian tribes to join the clamor for taxing Internet purchases, just as they do doubt celebrated this latest tax increase. Higher prices elsewhere will bring people to the reservation to shop.
Then there's the nightmare scenario.
Even after plugging the Internet loophole and putting a duty on imported cigarettes, tax revenues drop considerably because for whatever reasons people smoke less than before.
What would the State of New York's next move be to salvage its bloated health-care system?
You got it: Promote smoking.
Holy cow! $5.55 a pack of 20, US dollars? That's like $8+ Canadian for a pack of 20. Even British Columbia, which I believe has the highest cig taxes in Canada (not sure about the far north, but that's not completely relevant, as high taxes pay for the high cost of living up there), hasn't taxed cigarettes as highly as that. I recently paid about CDN$7 for a pack of 25 in Nova Scotia
See how "they" are? They say increasing taxes will make smokers quit. But look at where they intend to put that money. If smokers quit, where would they GET that money?
I am so upset I could chew nails.........
Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, 85% of all lung cancers occur in smokers.
That being said, only 15% of smokers develop lung cancer.
Second hand smoke is a lie.
However, would you cross the street if you had a 15% chance of getting run over?
People should be free to smoke if they want to, but they should be aware of these grim statistics.
Cigarettes kill more Americans in one year than all illegal drugs combined in the last 20.
If these idiots cared about the health of smokers they would BAN cigarettes, but they make ten times as much per pack or more as the cigarette companies.
Despite the billions of dollars awarded to the states, they have done nothing to make these simple facts known, instead opting for bizarre teen oriented anti-smoking campaigns that apparently steer this money to their ad agency friends with the promise not to make the message too effective.
The States then use most of the cigarette settlement money for other purposes, thus committing fraud.
They are the ones who should be getting sued.