"NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City and other anti-smoking groups released a separate poll that shows 73 percent of city residents support higher cigarette taxes. The survey, also conducted by Global Strategy Group, polled 1,000 city dwellers from March 12-18, with a 3.1 percent margin of error."

[You can bet the 27 percent, whom opposed the hike ... were smokers. Any tax that 73 percent of voters do not have to pay ... will always be popular.]

Gee ... I stuff my own ... buy bulk tobacco locally, in a tobacco growing area, for 5 bucks a pound (tobacco auction off the farm is two dollars a pound) ... my current cost ... $4.50 a carton. Which is a saving's of $60.50 a carton ... from the proposed New York City hike. I feel so guilty ... NOT!
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/ny-nytax272641496mar27.story

I am SO thankful we found the alternative of rolling our own! It will be a year this June, and the money we have saved has been unbelievable! What a blessing.

So, the damn states can raise the taxes all they want. Maybe one day, all smokers will wake up and roll their own, and then we all can thumb our noses at the state!!

Amen!

Hey, John L...

Is there a limit on how many pounds of tobacco you, an individual, can buy there for that price? Now, what if someone out in say, Kookiefornia, was to pay you $6 for a printed tract of some kind--maybe even an anti-smoking thingy (I'm sure we could think of sumpin')--could you send that Kookiefornian a pound of tobacco free? Assuming the postage was paid, of course?

Just asking.

If you don't roll your own their are the Reservation stores in NY. Don't think this is the place for a commercial link but if you need one ask, will post one tomorrow.

As much as my smoking friends would like to support the neighborhood mom & pop convenience stores, with taxes this high they don't see anything wrong (or impractical) about supporting the Seneca businesses.

Some who don't want to buy on the internet just drive to Salamanca NY.

Spinner ... does not hurt to ask, but, I am not in the tobacco business, to tough of business for me, just a consumer like you. I just reside in a low tax state, that grow's some tobacco.
If folk's are in such ... take a drive out to Marlboro country ... you will often find retailers selling the locally grown stuff, at very good prices. If you live in California ... move.

It start's out selling around two bucks a pound (that will make about two and half cartons) from the auction houses ... that is where the major cigarette manufacturers purchase ... after it goes through a dozen hands, markups and taxes ... can end up on a store shelf in New York City ... selling for 65 bucks a carton!

Don't pay the vampire's ... stuff your own or make an Indian your best friend.

John L, thanks. I actually didn't mean YOU should go into the business...was just wondering what the rules are as regards individuals.

See, I've been stuffing my own for years now and wouldn't go back to paying the leeches for a million bucks. I just foresee that one day the ability to buy loose tobacco online from NC or VA or KY will be curtailed, and it's my nature to be prepared for that eventuality.

It's also my nature to help other folks do the same. I'm sure if necessary I can find someone there who thinks like I do.

John L, that last sentence wasn't meant to be a jab. Folks here who know me will tell you I'm just a bit devious when necessary...I meant I'll have to find someone as willing to be creatively devious as I am.

Spinner, I believe you.

And now, from Connecticut, sin taxes that will affect everyone, but will affect low income earners the most. Also, as everyone knows, once these taxes become law, they won't be remove when the economy improves.

According to the LA TIMES today, Commiefornia is considering taxing soda pop to support heath programs for "THE CHILDREN".

Sin taxes? Just the opposite of FDR's socialist make work for everyone programs to get people on their feet. This is a sure sign that all government has gotten too big when they start taxing people out of work to feed their own mouths. At the rate it's going, soon the golden leaf will be more $$$'s per ounce than an ounce of the yellow element itself.