I won't if you won't! 
Posted on 11/24/2002 9:20:48 AM PST by SheLion
Douglas Smith, a chain-smoking mail-order entrepreneur from the coal mining town of Ashland, Ky., wants to share his bad habit. The idea struck last winter, when word of Mayor Bloomberg's proposed cigarette tax increase made the local news.
"I don't know why it aggravated me so much," said Mr. Smith, who smokes three cartons a week. "I'm not even from New York and it makes me angry. It really drives me nuts."
After a few cigarettes, a light bulb went on. "There's an opportunity for people to go in there and make literally millions of dollars," said Mr. Smith, a former landfill operator. With the tax in place, New Yorkers now pay about $7 a pack.
Two months ago, Mr. Smith and a neighbor started El Diablo's Tobacco Shack to sell cheaper cigarettes to New Yorkers. Kentucky has the second-lowest cigarette tax in the country, at 3 cents a pack. Virginia, at 2.5 cents, is the lowest, while New York City is the highest with a combined state and city tax of $3.
Interstate tobacco retailers have grown in recent years. Federal law requires mail-order cigarette customers to pay tax in their own states, but the law is rarely enforced.
El Diablo's is probably alone among the interstate tobacco retailers in marketing only to New York City. Working with a direct-mail company, El Diablo's has started to blanket the city with red-and-white fliers, asking "fellow New Yorkers" if they are tired of paying high prices for cigarettes. Of the 250,000 pieces mailed so far, 10,000 have replied yes, Mr. Smith said.
Newport menthols, traditionally marketed to blacks and Latinos, are the most popular. People in the South Bronx and eastern Brooklyn have been big buyers.
"We just figured that's where the working-class people are," Mr. Smith said. "Most of your smokers are people who can't afford the extra taxes." To that end, El Diablo's accepts payments not only by credit card, but also by personal check and even c.o.d. These easy-payment options don't sit well with some observers.
"I've never heard of this before," said Eric Lindblom, a policy analyst for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington advocacy group. "It's preying on poor people." Like Mayor Bloomberg, Mr. Lindblom voices hope that the higher taxes will be an incentive for people to quit.
Mr. Smith sees it differently. "Our plan is to make sure everybody has access," he said. "People have the right to smoke. I'm waiting for Bloomberg to quit drinking, so he'll start calling for prohibition."
Well, the machines bought over the net are still tax free.
And a bag of tobacco cost $5.75, which makes a carton. And if they start taxing the bags of tobacco, I will be dead before they get a bag up to $50!
Really makes you wonder how our generation and the generation behind us are still alive and kicking.
The anti's try to make this sound like tobacco was just declared bad for us, when in fact, my parents told me back in the 50's that tobacco was not good for us.
How right you are! I had forgotten about this!
I'd love it! If Big T can't go on strike, we can go on strike FOR them. LOL!
Yea right the 3 dollars a pack dont have a damn thing to do with it.
Bloomie raises cigarette taxes hoping to help his city out with the budget.
Lindblommie says that raising taxes will "help people quit." Now who do we believe? Which is it? Balance budget cause they need our money, or make us quit? Which is it?
Can't have both.......
I won't if you won't!
Getting caught is one thing. But the government can't keep up with all the online sales. A lot of online cigarette sites are moving their ISP a lot, just to keep ahead of the FEDS.
Nothing prevents them from doing this. And nothing prevents me from ordering all that stuff from out of state, which is exactly what I do every time I order my tobacco. Papers, tubes, plugs, machines, naptha, butane, flints, everything gets bought from Bush country. And I extend that to include clothes, books, gadgets, tools, anything I can think of.
The California tax man takes a savage beating from me.
No, no. They have taken a net loss of 300 million in tobacco revenue each year since 1998. That's a net loss. They themselves admit this.
Got a better idea. Let's throw the tax man into the harbor after we tar and feather him.
I sure understand. The online business people are pretty savvy to keep ahead of the law. I, myself, would be the one to get caught, so I don’t even try anything like that. But I sure am thankful there are those that do and can get away with it.
Good for you!!!!!!!
As much as I want to get out of living in Delaware, the one advantage is no sales tax. Like everywhere else there are the hidden taxes, but there is no added sales tax.
Having grown up in NYC - that is someting I can truly appreciate.
The fact that I will be able to walk into the supermarket and buy a bottle of wine or a case of beer and not have to drive to another state if I forget to stock up on Saturday will be a plus with moving to Virginia. No smoking bans is another plus. And I'll only be less than 2 hours from sales tax-free Delaware. all of these advantages make putting up with a 4% or so sales tax palatable. Oh and the school system where we're going is superb!!!
Now, if I could only sell my house in Delaware so I could go down there!!!!!!!
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