Van Dough: Why cigarette smugglers love New York.

Reason Online ^ | 7/5/02 | Jacob Sullum

[NeoCaveman]

Puff....Ping

[Bommer]

What I don't understand is why the tabacco manufacturers don't just boycott NY or CA when they raise taxes? I realize they would loose revenue, but for tabacco companys to be solely taxed, while liquor doesn't seems to be taxed at the same rate, to me seems to be taxation without repensentation! If I were RJR, I would get together with other tabacco companys and pull out of the liberal state markets and let them find another creative source to finance their bloated budgets!

[Hunble]

The average pack of smokes is 6.5 cubic inches and aren't very heavy A typical semi-truck van measures 576" long (48') x 96" wide x 110" high....

How many packs of smokes can you smuggle in one trip? What is your minimum and maximum expected per/pack profits

LOTS, and if you order the tobacco and cigarette tubes today, while it is still legal, the future profits could be astronomical.

I love capitalism!

[Maelstrom]

This was meant for you.

[Biblebelter]

Supposedly tourism is important to NYC. If that is true, then they ought to have a smoker's advisory in all their advertisements and commercials (BYOS) Bring you own smokes.

[Roscoe]

The cigarettes equal crack argument again? Yawn.

Have you ever thought about having that tattooed on your forehead?

[Maelstrom]

No, the prohibition = prohibition argument.

I hope you too are somewhere in NY so you can see for yourself the violence the black market in tobacco brings.

[Roscoe]

No, the prohibition = prohibition argument.

How facile.

[maxwell]

When a New Yorker buys a pack of Marlboros, the city will make four or five times as much as Philip Morris does. But that's OK, because the mayor's heart is in the right place.

That says it all right there, dude...

[MoralSense]

Here's another math problem. I can't do it because I don't have a pack of cigarettes around (I smoke cigars). How much does a pack of cigarettes weigh? I seem to remember it's 1.5 oz., or something like that. If that's so, $7 x 10.1 (approx) = $77/pound. Still not quite as expensive as silver.

[Maelstrom]

We sell cigarettes: 199 at a time.

[lowbridge]

How many packs of smokes can you smuggle in one trip?

77981.53846154

(Of course, I'm probably dead wrong as per usual :-)

What is your minimum and maximum expected per/pack profits

2-3 dollars per pack.

Just a few more trips and I can be a multi-millionaire inside of a week.

[Gabz]

What I don't understand is why the tabacco manufacturers don't just boycott NY or CA when they raise taxes?

They can't because under the terms of the Master Settlement agreement, the payments for which are based on sales volume, the manufacturers are required to continue to sell their product in the 46 states which signed the agreement, and that includes NY.

When sales of cigarettes plummet in New York City, and the MSA payments to the state start dropping I can see the folks in Albany teling Mayor Bloominidiot to ditch the increase.

[Maelstrom]

You must still undercut the other sellers. Then avoid the IRS and the local business laws.

Also...as this gears up, watch out for those willing to shoot others selling on their turf.

I'm not sure how many cigarettes can be sold by an individual, legally, under our law system...you aren't free to sell what you please to whom you please. Then, there are limits on what may be transported across the border, but then again, once you're outside Bloomberg's Reign of Terror (upstate) you've evaded his tax, so maybe you just need a cardboard stand at the end of the Washington Bridge or the beginning of Rt 90.

[SheLion]

No doubt Bloomberg is right that some smokers will quit rather than pay exorbitant prices or go to the trouble of finding alternative supplies. But that choice will demonstrate that they were never the helpless victims he maks them out to be.

NO WAY! It just forces smokers to go to the NET, or across state lines, Reservations or rolling our own. And let the state pound sand!

And ole Bloomberg! heh! He smoked pot and LIKED it. He's a dumb a$$.

They have screwed themselves by taxing cigarettes to high heaven. It's stupid now, for any smoker to pay into the state coffers!!

[Great Dane]

The smugglers started their engines a long time ago, and they are ready.

[rodeocowboy]

But Bloomberg said it was really all about public health. "This may be the most important measure my administration takes to save people's lives," he declared, arguing that higher cigarette prices will encourage smokers to quit, giving them extra years in which to thank him for the favor he is doing them.

This is proof that Republicans are somewhat as "big, nanny government" as Democrats are. In Michigan, we elected a republican house, senate, and governorship; what did they do? They made the seat belt law a primary offense instead of a secondary offense that our republican governor, John Engler, had promised it would remain. "Don't worry you stupid subjects, your government will save you from yourselves."

[SheLion]

I'm ready to start the RYO process myself. Could you recommend a good machine and a light no additive tobacco to start with?

STEVE! I'M HURT! Why didn't you ask ME??????

Here is the Supermatic cigarette rolling machine "I" use. It's top of the line and rolls out cigarettes like RJR!!!!

You buy it off the net and last forever!! Let me know if you don't have the URL Hon.

[Great Dane]

Pretty much. For a while, there were some upstate NY'ers and Canadians making fat money floating smokes across Lake Ontario by the boatload...

And the black market is set to arrive again, the government has now raised the price of a carton to $52.

[SheLion]

When sales of cigarettes plummet in New York City, and the MSA payments to the state start dropping I can see the folks in Albany teling Mayor Bloominidiot to ditch the increase.

Not to MENTION that smokers pay into the MSA %100!!!!!