New Tax on Ciggs

[Troutman65]

I went to my local gas station and got a pack of smokes . It cost $ 4.35 Plus .38 cents tax. I thought it would be more . Guess they did not hear the news about the tax.

[vanillagurilla]

yeah there all $5+ here then u gota add the sales tax!! ill just stick to my skoal haha.

[sansou]

Just this morning I was downtown for a hearing. I stepped out of the courthouse when I was done, lit up a smoke (as usual), and as is the case at nearly every courthouse I've ever been to there's the homeless people hanging out doing their thing.

Well, this homeless guy saw me light up so he asked me a cigarette. I open up the pack and lean towards him and offer him a smoke.

Sure as heck, the dude licks his crusty *** fingers and pulls four cigs out....real slick and quick like, and then beams me a toofless smile.

The dude got me for around $1 a cigs! ha ha ha!!!

As I got near my car, I opened up the pack of cigs again to see just exactly how many he scammed. It's then I noticed there was a brown smudge by the filter of one of them (no doubt from the dirt on his nasty fingers). Dangit! I ended up pitching the pack of cigs from the window of my car as I drove off the parking lot. I notice in my rearview that another homeless guy picked up the pack!

Smoking is getting to be expensive!

[Granny Fish]

As I got near my car, I opened up the pack of cigs again to see just exactly how many he scammed. It's then I noticed there was a brown smudge by the filter of one of them (no doubt from the dirt on his nasty fingers). Dangit! I ended up pitching the pack of cigs from the window of my car as I drove off the parking lot. I notice in my rearview that another homeless guy picked up the pack!


LOL - Sharing with the less fortunate of our society is a gracious thing to do but you should have taken one out and handed it to him or just given him the rest of the pack. :Wink:

[Sea Monkey]

Aw Rich... at first your story made me feel all warm and fuzzy.... and then in need of a shower!!! Thanks.

[Skyler]

Check out smokes-spirits.com. You can get a carton there for like $15 shipped! Screw California and it's greedy ploys to tax our sins. Send your money to an indian reservation. God knows they deserve it more.

[sansou]

LOL - Sharing with the less fortunate of our society is a gracious thing to do but you should have taken one out and handed it to him or just given him the rest of the pack. :Wink:

GF,

To be honest, I initially was thinking the same thing. Just hand him a cig!

However, unless I am dealing with someone familiar (friends etc..), I just hold the pack open and let them take a cig. Some people even tap the pack so that a couple cigs protrude out while offering.

It's kind of a "smoker's etiquette" thing... I find it's not terribly graceful to pull one out and hand it out, unless, once again, you are on a familiar basis with someone. Likewise, I usually stand by ready with a lighter (or at least offer) so the dude doesn't have to ask me for a light too.

Perhaps it's just me, but I have found it to be one of those universal things, unspoken but understood among us dwindling brethren of nicotine fiends, that you can count on no matter where you are at in the world.

Ahhhh, the cameraderie of cancer.

[Troutman65]

GF,

To be honest, I initially was thinking the same thing. Just hand him a cig!

However, unless I am dealing with someone familiar (friends etc..), I just hold the pack open and let them take a cig. Some people even tap the pack so that a couple cigs protrude out while offering.

It's kind of a "smoker's etiquette" thing... I find it's not terribly graceful to pull one out and hand it out, unless, once again, you are on a familiar basis with someone. Likewise, I usually stand by ready with a lighter (or at least offer) so the dude doesn't have to ask me for a light too.

Perhaps it's just me, but I have found it to be one of those universal things, unspoken but understood among us dwindling brethren of nicotine fiends, that you can count on no matter where you are at in the world.

Ahhhh, the cameraderie of cancer.



Yeah, I do the same Rich. I think now after hearing your story I will gab the smoke and hand it to the guy.

[tacklejunkie]

Down to 10-15 a day from 20.
GF quit cold turkey and she's still complaining she wants a cig over 30 days later.

In that sense, there's no hope for me :Sad:
Less seems like a more achievable goal for now than none.

[bullets_full]

I quit last Monday with help from the patches and gum and am still so edgy I just want to hurt someone. I've read that wears off after a week or two.

[Cangler]

I went to my local gas station and got a pack of smokes . It cost $ 4.35 Plus .38 cents tax. I thought it would be more . Guess they did not hear the news about the tax.


Having a fagg is a tad pricey huh

[DarkShadow]

Does anybody have an accurate figure on how much tax payer money is spent for health services yearly for individuals suffering from illnesses, symptoms or diseases caused directly by being a smoker?

In that case, you can divide that number by the number or packs of cigarettes the manufacturers produce a year, and that number will be the tax per pack of cigarettes they should be.

:Wink:

Only in a Libertarian world, though....

•

Cuz I don't know about you, but as a non-smoker, i can see how it'd be pretty irritating knowing that I'm paying for someone else's medical care because of THIER life style choices.

[olfishergal]

Go to New York!!!! cigs are $9.00 a pack there. Good work bullets, and yes it will go away...just make luv more for a week or three to take the edge off.......:Envious: OFG

[sansou]

Does anybody have an accurate figure on how much tax payer money is spent for health services yearly for individuals suffering from illnesses, symptoms or diseases caused directly by being a smoker?

In that case, you can divide that number by the number or packs of cigarettes the manufacturers produce a year, and that number will be the tax per pack of cigarettes they should be.

:Wink:

Only in a Libertarian world, though....

•

Cuz I don't know about you, but as a non-smoker, i can see how it'd be pretty irritating knowing that I'm paying for someone else's medical care because of THIER life style choices.

Slippery slope....slippery.




* and I ain't referring to golf course ninja-ing and you potentially breaking your leg on a slippery hill in the dark. Cause I'll be on the phone with AETNA telling them you made a risky life style choice which resulted in me footing some of the bill!!!

[joe man]

Does anybody have an accurate figure on how much tax payer money is spent for health services yearly for individuals suffering from illnesses, symptoms or diseases caused directly by being a smoker?

In that case, you can divide that number by the number or packs of cigarettes the manufacturers produce a year, and that number will be the tax per pack of cigarettes they should be.

:Wink:

Only in a Libertarian world, though....

•

Cuz I don't know about you, but as a non-smoker, i can see how it'd be pretty irritating knowing that I'm paying for someone else's medical care because of THIER life style choices.


Just as it is irritating to me that I am paying for people in prison, on wellfare, being treeted for weight related illnesses (now causing more deaths than smoking), or living in section 8 housing because of the choices they have made. IF we do not have socialized health care then I will be paying for my own illness brought on by my choices. I agree that you should not have to pay for me but just because I smoke it does not mean that I should pay for everyone else. I don't drink but I pay for the people who do. If a drinker gets a DUI I pay for it. The sin tax that is being put on smokes and the new taxes on golf fees are a sort of class/ social warfare. Lets be real, if taxes are to be fair then they should apply equally to all of our people. Just because I make more or less than someone else does not mean that I use government provided services more or less. I do not want anyone to pay my way through life but I also do not want to be forced to pay theirs.

[sansou]

PUT THIS IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT!

FACT CHECK: Do smokers cost society money?


By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 7, 6:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Smoking takes years off your life and adds dollars to the cost of health care. Yet nonsmokers cost society money, too — by living longer.

It's an element of the debate over tobacco that some economists and officials find distasteful.
House members described huge health care costs associated with smoking as they approved landmark legislation last week giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products. No one mentioned the additional costs to society of caring for a nonsmoking population that lives longer.

Supporters of the FDA bill cited figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that smokers cost the country $96 billion a year in direct health care costs, and an additional $97 billion a year in lost productivity.

A White House statement supporting the bill, which awaits action in the Senate, echoed the argument by contending that tobacco use "accounts for over a $100 billion annually in financial costs to the economy."
However, smokers die some 10 years earlier than nonsmokers, according to the CDC, and those premature deaths provide a savings to Medicare, Social Security, private pensions and other programs.

Vanderbilt University economist Kip Viscusi studied the net costs of smoking-related spending and savings and found that for every pack of cigarettes smoked, the country reaps a net cost savings of 32 cents.
"It looks unpleasant or ghoulish to look at the cost savings as well as the cost increases and it's not a good thing that smoking kills people," Viscusi said in an interview. "But if you're going to follow this health-cost train all the way, you have to take into account all the effects, not just the ones you like in terms of getting your bill passed."

Viscusi worked as a litigation expert for the tobacco industry in lawsuits by states but said that his research, which has been published in peer-reviewed journals, has never been funded by industry.
Other researchers have reached similar conclusions.

A Dutch study published last year in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal said that health care costs for smokers were about $326,000 from age 20 on, compared to about $417,000 for thin and healthy people.
The reason: The thin, healthy people lived much longer.

Willard Manning, a professor of health economics and policy at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies, was lead author on a paper published two decades ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found that, taking into account tobacco taxes in effect at the time, smokers were not a financial burden to society.

"We were actually quite surprised by the finding because we were pretty sure that smokers were getting cross-subsidized by everybody else," said Manning, who suspects the findings would be similar today. "But it was only when we put all the pieces together that we found it was pretty much a wash."
Such conclusions are controversial since they assign an economic benefit to premature death. U.S. government agencies shy away from the calculations.

The goal of the U.S. health care system is "prolonging disability-free life," states the 2004 Surgeon General's report on the health consequences of smoking. "Thus any negative economic impacts from gains in longevity with smoking reduction should not be emphasized in public health decisions."

Dr. Terry Pechacek, the CDC associate director for science in the office on smoking and health, said that data seeking to quantify economic benefits of smoking couldn't capture all the benefits associated with longevity, like a grandparent's contribution to a family. Because of such uncertainties the CDC won't put a price tag on savings from smoking.
"The natural train of logic that follows from that is that then anybody that's admitted around age 65 or older that's showing any signs of sickness should be denied treatment," Pechacek said. "That's the cheapest thing to do."

[joe man]

Nice sansou. Now I will find it harder to stop smoking because I am smoking for my country. Gotta help us out of this economical slowdown and support my doctors/ farmers.

[sansou]

Nice sansou. Now I will find it harder to stop smoking because I am smoking for my country. Gotta help us out of this economical slowdown and support my doctors/ farmers.

Ha ha ha!!

Interesting article huh?

Taking it one step further....by extrapolation, it appears those dang Vegans, cause they don't eat cows and stuff, are flat out wrecking our national healthcare system by burdening it by living waaaay beyond what the rest of us red blooded Americans consider polite! LOL

[joe man]

Ha ha ha!!

Interesting article huh?

Taking it one step further....by extrapolation, it appears those dang Vegans, cause they don't eat cows and stuff, are flat out wrecking our national healthcare system by burdening it by living waaaay beyond what the rest of us red blooded Americans consider polite! LOL


Hey this is making me think back to a movie of my youth. Did Logan,s Run have the truth about our future health care policies?

Speaking of the Vegens and their failure to eat cows; they are contributing to global warming due to the extra methane gas being produced by those cows they fail to eat. We may need to increase the tax on vegetables to offset the cost of Green Projects and uneversal health care which are much more needed thanks to the Vegens..

[Hitts0n]

I went to my local gas station and got a pack of smokes . It cost $ 4.35 Plus .38 cents tax. I thought it would be more . Guess they did not hear the news about the tax.


I want the to go up like 15.00 them more people would stop smoking

[bruce watson]

I want to see them handed out for free in prisons. WTH, give them out for free to all registered sex offenders too.

[fish_sauce]

Down to 10-15 a day from 20.
GF quit cold turkey and she's still complaining she wants a cig over 30 days later.


My old man quit "cold turkey" after thirty something years of smoking. I was helping him go through and clean up some of his old belongings when he came across his old tobacco pipe. After quiting for almost a decade, he tells me that the desire to light up is still there, "haunting you like an old lover from the past," he jokingly said, as if he never gave it up at all.

He always told me that the best and most effective way to quit is to convince yourself that it's a terrible waste of money! For a few years, i was going through almost two packs a day. After much struggle and many failed attempts to quit, i've weaned myself down to three or four cigs a day. After the recent tax hikes on tobacco, my father's advice has become a lot more convincing and practical!

And you are right! Small achievable goals/progress are better than none at all!

[Liteliner]

I hear you guys. I've been clean almost a month now and still have that urge that isnt enough to get me to smoke but just enough to make me have to try to keep myself from smoking... I really hope this isnt the way its gonna be for the rest of my life.:Crying:

[joe man]

I want the to go up like 15.00 them more people would stop smoking

Some of us smokers have an addiction that is hard to break at any cost. I managed to get off meth, booze, pot, and various other mind altering substances but the old Marlboro are the hardest to quit. I thought I would quit when I turn 40, when smokes went over 3 a pack, when they made me feel rough, 1 year after I stopped the other addictions, after I got rid of my first wife, and on many other occasions but here I am still puffing away. We smokers have it bad enough without being penalized by the government. If raising the price to 15 bucks would insure all smokers would stop then I might like the increase but it doesn't work that way. If you want to help me to stop smoking here is what you can do: get the bad drivers off the road 2) get the crooks out of government 3) make my wife let me go fishing every day 4) make my boss let me set my hours 4) shoot me. I know these are all excuses but if you were around me when I try to quit you would be buying my next pack. I do not like to be an Ahole to the people around me but I do turn into one when I am Jonesing.

[DarkShadow]

Ha ha ha!!

Interesting article huh?



Unfortunately, like a some 'medical studies published in journals' that are used for articles in newspapers, the study itself is skewed because they ignore the maternal damage to developing fetuses and infants from second hand smoke, and the health care costs incurred by second hand smokers in general.

Secondly, they arent including costs for non-fatal cardiovascular events or heart disease caused by smoking.

If smoking causes heart disease and someone doesn't die from it, it's hard to believe their health costs will be those of an average individual.

I had the GF pull the actual study (yes, the cure for boredom is curiosity) and after reading it, she's sending it to a few people at the pharm-econ department at SC to see what they think about the methods of the study, because I need to see what individuals whose area of expertise is health care cost analysis have to say about them.

[joe man]

Unfortunately, like a some 'medical studies published in journals' that are used for articles in newspapers, the study itself is skewed because they ignore the maternal damage to developing fetuses and infants from second hand smoke, and the health care costs incurred by second hand smokers in general.

Secondly, they arent including costs for non-fatal cardiovascular events or heart disease caused by smoking.

If smoking causes heart disease and someone doesn't die from it, it's hard to believe their health costs will be those of an average individual.

I had the GF pull the actual study (yes, the cure for boredom is curiosity) and after reading it, she's sending it to a few people at the pharm-econ department at SC to see what they think about the methods of the study, because I need to see what individuals whose area of expertise is health care cost analysis have to say about them.

It is pretty much a given that most research is done to prove a premisis. So most studies are biased based on the views of those who do them as well as on the purpose for which they are done. Second hand smoke dangers have often been blown out of proportion just like the man made global warming theories. There are facts out there to prove the damages of each choice a person makes in life but unless you do the research for your self you will get select information which supports the agenda of the research team. I think your GF is taking a good action to get the skinny on the report a second opinion from a contrasting viewpoint is a good way to sort the garbage.

Fast food kills more people than smoking according to recent studies.