[Dan from Michigan]

Indiana must be loving this.....

[per loin]

Smuggling is often the only cure for evil laws.

[jumpstartme]

Of course, you could always grow your own....

[SheLion]

Speaking of BLOOMBERG!

What a hypocrite!

[Fraulein]

Organized crime is none other than the government, extorting money from smoker's by force. And where has all that tax revenue gone?

[blondee123]

Thus, the anti-smoking crowd hopes to achieve through the back door what it cannot achieve through the front: raising taxes to such a level that tobacco effectively is an illegal product. It won't stop people from smoking, just ensure that only smugglers make any money from it.

You betcha!!

[SheLion]

It is a shame that exorbitant cigarette taxes are creating a new class of criminals for those looking for a reasonably priced product. Smoking is already a highly restricted activity to reduce harm to non-smokers, but that's just not enough for some do-gooders....

It seems to me that the state is not in the least bit interested in the public-health aspects the tax has promoted. Have we seen an overall decrease in teen smoking? Or has anyone quit for good because of the tax? Where are those numbers? Seems to me that the only numbers published are those that have to do with the decrease in retail sales of tobacco and how the state is looking to spend more money to catch the cigarette bootleggers.

John Vawter, Port Orchard said "One thing is for certain, we will get taxed in some other way to make up for this shortfall!"

[brat]

If I lived in those locales, I'd volunteer to drive the van! Use yesmoke.com.....CHEAP major brand cigarettes, no shipping and avoid paying the Tyrannical Government anything at all! Pass it along to your addy book. Let's show the gov we've had enough. Everyone knows someone who smokes...let them know!

[metesky]

Smuggling is as American as apple pie and has a history extending back to Colonial times.

Maine has a long tradition of smuggling that continued right through the Civil War.

[jackbill]

As I surfed through the news channels and C-SPAN this morning I heard a report that cigarette sales in New York City in July were down 50%.

I assume that they meant "legal sales". Ha Ha Ha Ha

[Great Dane]

They can't stop smuggling, look at the drug situation..... and thats an illegal product.

[FourtySeven]

The inevitable result of talk like this will be, unfortunately, unrelenting pressure by the anti-smokers to get all 50 states to raise their taxes as high as the highest state. Then, once that's accomplished, go after the Internet based businesses and the Indian Reservations. Smoking clearly is on its last legs, and I obviously can't argue the science behind such actions, it's just the fact that the government is making my decisions for me, yet again, that really rankles me.

Going back to the Indian reservations though, all this cigarette tax insanity might actually be worth it to see which the liberals value more: "Native Americans" or the persecution of the smoker. hehe