Poor Smokers get nothing.

With the new tobacco tax that takes affect, to give you an idea what the tax is going to be, it used to be 1.08 tax per pound of roll you own tobacco . Now it will be taxed $24.00 a pound. That means that you will now pay $9.00 more for a can of rolling tobacco.

My husband will be getting eight dollars a week extra with the stimulus .
So we are still a dollar short!

I wonder if the reservations have to pay this tax.

Smokers have been hit from all sides for years.

"Clean Indoor Air Act" - While I can see this in some situations I think it's gotten way out of hand. To tell privately owned restraunts that they are not to allow smoking in their restraunt "for the good of the people" well PFFFFT

"Sin Tax" (which just increases exponentially every year)

"FSC" - Fire Safe Cigarettes (omg these things are HORRIBLE)

All for the good of us smokers, doncha know ... we are horrible people who stink up everyone else and make them sick. We deserve to pay more taxes than everyone else, we deserve to have our small pleasure regulated heavily because it's BAD for us! *eye roll*

Just another example of loosing our rights, slowly, inexoriably and completely (eventually).

Why doesnt Codex Alimentarus call for the outlaw of tobacco products?
It is bad for one;s and other's (second hand smoke) health. There is nothing good that comes from it except profits to tobacco companies.

That FSC pisses me off, I bought a pack smoked one cigarette, the most awful thing I thought surely the pack must of been old, but kept smoking them, until a friend told me about the FSC on them, there awful, and go out halfway through smoking them, there more of a nuisence then anything.


This country was founded on a few things, God and Tobacco, are two of them, Why ban tobacco? Its my choice if I want to smoke, cancer, well its my decision and I chose, not obama's not anyone's choice, last I checked free country, were the blame falls on the individuals and noone else's.

FYI if i get lung cancer, tell everyone it was my fault, not KOOL brand cigarettes. IF anything thank them for providing a product that releases stress, worth it, hell yeah.

Hey, Here in Arkansas they just passed an additional 56 cent tax increase per pack on top of what the feds passed. It will be $1.50 more per pack of cigarettes as of march first in taxes alone.

I'm torn between quitting and bootlegging. 30 minutes away is a state where the taxes are only .17 cents. I just might do both.

Sin taxes have always been a cash cow for the government. They should be careful that they don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

Be careful. There is money in that stimulus bill to go after bootleggers. They already anticipate it! Department of Revenue is going to conduct a study to see how much money they will need to stop it! Insane

Damn their not doing a good enough job......they need to just make cigarettes illegal

Originally posted by amatrine
Be careful. There is money in that stimulus bill to go after bootleggers. They already anticipate it! Department of Revenue is going to conduct a study to see how much money they will need to stop it! Insane

Wow, really? I was abotu to type I would look int to getting tobacco seeds...

Ah, well, I know plenty of herbal alternatives.

reply to post by amatrine


Wow, you are a dollar down. How will you cope?

I hear almost 3 billion people in the world live on two dollars fifty a day. I am sure your news will stike a chord with them and that empathy as well as sympathy will no doubt be offered to your Husbands and your situation.

But whatever you do, don't stop him from smoking. Although he will be finacially better of and save the equivalent of four days worth of living in the third world, and also possibly recover aspects of his health and fittnes no doubt severly and adversly damaged by the habitual intake of the addictive and destructive substances in abd added to tabacco. He should be able to smoke and not be one dollar poorer. I mean it is not like smokers are a heavy burden on any health system, I mean its only 1% of GDP in Europe and a measely 3.5% GDP in my country Australia, as a non-smoker I am only to happy to absorb this cost while I also am extremely happy to see my taxes increase to cover the burden placed on society by smokers so that they do not have to incur a tax on the product itself, or their habit, a habit that is estimated to kill 80,000 non-smokers in europe via passive exposure. I say we can take all that so you can have a dollar. I am with you, all the way.

Poor smokers. Hey, need a light.....

reply to post by atlasastro


You are missing the point. It's not about the dollar, it's about the encroachment of liberties. It's an objection that the government overtaxes a certain group of people because somethign they do is "wrong."

Doesnt affect me one bit..I get my cigs at cost plus 10 cents.

2nd line.


Cheers!!!!

(lights one up)

reply to post by asmeone2


Exactly. Most people that smoke roll your owns do so because it is cheaper. Now it will not be. It is like going to a restaurant and buying rice, or going to the store and cooking your own. Now the rice in the store that your have to cook you self cost just as much as the rice in the restaurant that is already prepared.




[edit on 14-2-2009 by amatrine]

[edit on 14-2-2009 by amatrine]

Actually in thinking about this, it could put the roll your own companies out of business. Now pipe tobacco will only go up 23 cents, maybe they can find a way to sell it as pipe tobacco, yet you can still roll it.

Here in Kentucky we are about to have an increase of, I think, 30 cents on a pack of cigarettes and a 6 percent tax placed on alcohol products. I think this will backfire on the government that is hoping to reduce greatly a 468 million or so deficit. Anyway, when this doesn't work, and it won't, they will search out new ways to tax, without increasing the income tax, continuing to give tax relief to corporations to locate here and pay substandard wages. I suppose the next tax will be on twinkies and chips. Maybe that won't be so bad. It will place the tax burden on more people. Have you ever been to Kentucky lately? Sheesh, what a bunch of fatties! I pay my own way and I am not fat. But I stand in line at grocery stores watching food stamp recipients using their government, red, white and blue card to pay for Lays potato chips, bags of candy, soda and salt saturated quick cooking microwave meals, etc. Of course these folks won't be paying extra taxes since it's my money anyway, but for the remainder of these fatties that pay their own way and flood our medical system with heart problems and diabetes, it is one way to make them pay their fair share. Okay, just rambling here. No harm. Just look away. Nothing to see here. Oh, forgot to add, the government here is hoping that gambling will help with the budget shortfall, too. Take some money away from Indiana. lol. Okay, I guess I shouldn't drink this cheap whiskey while ATSing. lol. Not to worry, soon the tax will come and I will stop buying.

I interrupt this thread to announce the following:

I quit smoking 45 days ago. Haven't had even one puff.

It has been hard but well worth it.

OK you may continue with your thread.

reply to post by atlasastro


It is my right to choose if I smoke or not. Just as it is someone's right to choose to eat beef or pork. Or someone's right to drink alchohol or not.

I choose to smoke while understanding that I have to pay for that right, to a certain extent. But to be "penalized" by heavier and heavier taxes, to have additives added to my cigarettes because the government decided it's best for everyone is just simply not right.

Would you like it if someone started taxing beef and said it was a sin tax because you ENJOY eating a steak? omg!

I don't mind paying a bit extra in taxes, honestly, but there has to be a limit somewhere. Some states the taxes you pay on cigarettes are more than the cigarettes themselves!

And while I will admit that yes, it that the health system may bear some "burden" from smokers, I don't feel it's right to say that the non-smoking taxpayer bears all the burden. They don't. Ever heard of health insurance? Smokers pay higher premiums because they choose to smoke. And smokers pay taxes too! More than the average non-smoker I'm sure.

It really gets my goat to hear the non-smoker start preaching about how much of a burden we smokers are on them. Like we don't work to make our money or pay our share of taxes. All we do is lay around and smoke cigarettes to make everyone else miserable.

Congrats Dizzi. I did it once for two years, but when I became paralized, the stress was too much, so started again. Now I am thinking about quitting again, just so my money does not go to pay for illegal immigrants health care.
That is another topic all together though.

Originally posted by asmeone2
reply to post by atlasastro

 

You are missing the point. It's not about the dollar, it's about the encroachment of liberties. It's an objection that the government overtaxes a certain group of people because somethign they do is "wrong."

What point about "liberty" did the OP make?


I find it amusing when smokers bring up the issue of liberty and freedoms when they themselves choose to smoke an addictive substance, become addicted to a substance that we clearly know all the ramifications of in relation to health etc, they lose their own free ability to choose not to smoke. Smokers have given up to smoking and the smoking buisnesses and the big corporations that feed their habit, society has not. Smokers then whinge when a wiser, more educated society refuses to absorb the substantial cost of that habit. Instead choosing to tax the habit that costs us all.

You talk about liberty and freedom, yet choose to be a slave.
You talk about liberty and freedom, yet become an addict to a product peddled by Big Corporations that have lied to people for decades.
You talk about liberty and freedom to do something wrong, not only to yourself but to society, without addressing the liberty and freedoms of people who choose to do the "right" thing by not smoking.
Your talk of liberty to smoke is confused with the society no longer having an acceptance to pay for the stupidity of the act itself, there is literally smoke in your eyes with this matter.

You are missing the point.

There is no point to smoking. So what liberty is being encroached upon. Your right to be stupid? You are not at liberty to be as stupid as you feel amongst everyone else, especially when it costs everyone else. It really is that simple.

I quit when smokes hit four bucks a carton. If you cannot afford to smoke, then maybe it is time to stop.

How about switching to e-cigarettes still get the nicotine without the tar and chemicals, and even better, they are the loophole around no-smoking bans LOL You can even use these on airplanes!

After the initial $150 or so investment, it is MUCH cheaper than tobacco. Each cartridge lasts for about 200-250 puffs, depending on the person. Basically about 2 packs per cartridge.

Also a great tool for quitting, as you can get high, medium, low and no nicotine cartridges, to taper yourself off the addiction, while still satisfying the physical portions of the habit

Use technology to beat the tax collectors at their own game