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Internet Smoke Shops Lure Tax-Averse Cigarette Buyers
Newhouse News Service ^

Posted on 07/31/2002 7:51:30 PM PDT by RCW2001

Internet Smoke Shops Lure Tax-Averse Cigarette Buyers

By HARLAN SPECTOR

c.2002 Newhouse News Service

As state after cash-strapped state slaps hefty tax increases on cigarettes, smokers are flocking to Internet sites where they can buy tax-free.

Hundreds of Internet smoke shops have come online in recent years, offering a vast selection of premium and discount brands and the enticement of tax-free smoking.

Anti-tobacco activists complain that Internet vendors are unregulated, making it easy for kids to buy online.

Meanwhile, some states are looking for ways to collect the excise taxes cigarette smokers are dodging. Massachusetts and other states have sought customer names from Internet vendors, but they have little leverage to force the issue.

The Ohio Department of Taxation asks a handful of out-of-state vendors for customer lists every year.

"We haven't had very good response," says department spokesman Gary Gudmundson.

"None of these (vendors) report," says Gary Kirschner, chief executive of eSmokes.com. Kirschner says his Internet smoke shop now has 450 competitors online, compared with 30 when his company started in 1999.

"Eighty percent are Indian reservations," he says. "They never report anything to anybody." Sales of cigarettes on Indian reservations are exempt from state and local taxes by law.

Demand is greatest from high-tax states like New York and New Jersey, which levy the nation's highest smoking tax -- $1.50 per pack.

Kirschner says eSmokes also is seeing a jump in customers from Pennsylvania, which raised its tax to $1 a pack on July 15.

New York tried to outlaw Internet and mail-order cigarette sales, but a federal judge struck down the provision last year.

Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., is drafting legislation in Congress to prohibit Internet sales to minors and require that cyberstores be licensed in every state in which they do business.

Age verification at dirtcheapcig.com is typical of Web vendors: "Click here to enter only if your (sic) are 18 or older".

Dr. Rob Crane, a Columbus, Ohio, family physician and anti-smoking activist, says Internet sales threaten efforts to reduce smoking rates with higher taxes.

"It ought to be illegal to sell across state borders," says Crane, who is also part of a campaign to raise the smoking age to 21.

The 55-cent-per-pack tax in his state, where adult and teen smoking rates are among the highest in the nation, may not be enough to drive large numbers of smokers to Internet vendors. Shipping charges keep Internet prices in the ballpark with brick-and-mortar retailers.

Tobacco dealers dispute evidence that higher taxes discourage smoking. They say the tax burden only shifts dependence to low-cost brands and out-of-state vendors.

"It's not people giving up the habit," says Joshua Sanders of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants.

"They're just going somewhere else."

(Harlan Spector is a reporter for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He can be contacted at hspector@plaind.com.)


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: pufflist
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1 posted on 07/31/2002 7:51:31 PM PDT by RCW2001
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To: RCW2001
I'm not a smoker (and I'm not a rabid anti-smoker) but anything that screws the government out of tax dollars legally, is OK in my book!

Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

2 posted on 07/31/2002 7:55:29 PM PDT by usconservative
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To: RCW2001
The tobacco nazis are royally pissed. And the states are going to see the elusive tax dollars they had counted on blow up in smoke along with the hefty tax increases they've piled on.
3 posted on 07/31/2002 7:56:39 PM PDT by goldstategop
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To: goldstategop
Rob Crane thinks I shouldn't be able to shop around for the product I want at a price I can afford. So much for the liberal mantra about "choice."
4 posted on 07/31/2002 8:00:38 PM PDT by goldstategop
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To: RCW2001
$9.50 a carton for Senecas, five cartons at a time delivered right to your door.

$9.50
x5
_____
$47.50
+$7.50 delivery
______
$55.00

$1.10 a pack! Welcome to the eighties.

5 posted on 07/31/2002 8:01:09 PM PDT by metesky
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To: RCW2001
"Eighty percent are Indian reservations," he says. "They never report anything to anybody."

Yeah, I can just picture some tax official from Ohio asking an Indian reservation, "Could we have a list of your customers?"

And the Indian reservation guy replies, "What's this 'We', Kemosabe?"

6 posted on 07/31/2002 8:01:09 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: metesky
I'm not a smoker. How much do packs normally sell for?
7 posted on 07/31/2002 8:02:24 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: RCW2001
"It ought to be illegal to sell across state borders," says Crane, who is also part of a campaign to raise the smoking age to 21.

It ought to be illegal to be a doctor in the USA without having a working knowledge of the US Constitution.

8 posted on 07/31/2002 8:03:36 PM PDT by ikka
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To: metesky
Link please?
9 posted on 07/31/2002 8:08:14 PM PDT by BJungNan
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To: metesky
I just checked the Seneca cigarette website. A carton of Marlboros sells for $31.05. What kind of cigarettes are you ordering that you get them for only $9.50 per carton?
10 posted on 07/31/2002 8:08:22 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: RCW2001
Thanks for the post
I'm enjoying an internet cigarette as I type.
It sure tastes good!
11 posted on 07/31/2002 8:08:30 PM PDT by watcher1
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To: RCW2001
Dr. Rob Crane will end up being the hero to the La Cosa Nostra, for revivng the black market. Hey Doc, the LEO community has enough on its' table as it is.
12 posted on 07/31/2002 8:08:56 PM PDT by mlibertarianj
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To: BJungNan

13 posted on 07/31/2002 8:12:59 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: PJ-Comix

And the Indian reservation guy replies, "What's this 'We', Kemosabe?"

"We're from the government and we're here to help."

I wonder how far back in time/history that phrase originates.

14 posted on 07/31/2002 8:14:13 PM PDT by Zon
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To: RCW2001
I bought a carton of Dorals last week at a Indian Casino in Lac Du Flambau WI for $21.50. Goes for around $32.00 locally. Love those Indians. (no mention of the $60.00 I left in their video poker machines, heck I was on vacation)
15 posted on 07/31/2002 8:34:58 PM PDT by UB355
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Now it's been a few years since I have been a smoker, but someone sent this link via e-mail for the smokers on that list...

http://yesmoke.com/eng/

Duty free smokes
16 posted on 07/31/2002 8:35:33 PM PDT by The Chief
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To: SheLion
'Kiss my butt nico-nazis!' ping! :-)
17 posted on 07/31/2002 8:37:34 PM PDT by Bella_Bru
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To: usconservative
"It ought to be illegal to sell across state borders," says Crane, who is also part of a campaign to raise the smoking age to 21."

Actually, there is a federal law that REQUIRES these vendors to report the names of the people they sell to out of state. That law has been on the books for years, or at least it was when I last check in the mid 80's. Why they don't raise that in the story, I dont know. And indian reservations really are not that great a deal. Maybe 3-4 bucks cheaper and no sales tax. The real bargin is found here:

http://yesmoke.com/eng/index.asp
18 posted on 07/31/2002 8:48:49 PM PDT by VA Advogado
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To: watcher1
I'm enjoying an internet cigarette as I type.

LOL

19 posted on 07/31/2002 8:50:12 PM PDT by VA Advogado
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To: Zon
"We're from the government and we're here to help."

Something tells me the Indians have heard that line before. :)

20 posted on 07/31/2002 8:51:00 PM PDT by VA Advogado
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