hmmm a rash of these lately (cigarettes stolen)

[Mari333]

Cigarettes Stolen From Store

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/42204492.html
$900,000 in cigarettes
stolen

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/news_wtnh_milford_90000_in_cigarettes_stolen_200903300535
Police: Up to $1 million in cigarettes stolen

http://www.news12.com/Login/home_login?id=228079
$8k of cigarettes stolen in Portage

http://www.topix.com/forum/source/wood/T3AU8DL19RC21G5QP
More than 1,500 cartons of cigarettes stolen in burglary

http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23878:more-than-1500-cases-of-cigarettes-stolen-in-burglary&catid=174:local-news&Itemid=1642
Cigarette Heist Now Estimated At $750K
http://www.wfsb.com/news/19053914/detail.html

black market, anyone?

[Auggie]

1. Is it true that pack of Marlboros is selling for $10 in Manhattan?

[Mari333]

2. thats what I hear

and 7 in chicago, says my son who doesnt smoke. they are 5.20 a pack at the cheapest in MI, and for MI thats expensive as hell.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. Yes. I live in a county north of the city and Marlboros are about $7.00 because

Phillip Morris reduced the prices on it.

My old brand Benson and Hedges Ultra Light are close to $10 a pack here.

[Historic NY]

10. Just about.............

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2009/pr010-09.shtml

[leftynyc]

15. Right downstairs in our newsstand

Cigs are going for $11/pack. Midtown Manhattan.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. When NY instituted a tax bringing cigarettes to $9 a pack I said that crime was going to go up.

Now with the new huge Fed. SCHIP increase, I can foresee people being mugged for cigarette money.

I make my own cigarettes and the price per pound on loose tobacco went up $24.00 per pound. It's still cost effective to make my own because it comes out to about $2.50 a pack.

[Democracyinkind]

4. Maybe it's the wingnuts storing cartons with their ammo and guns.

[Mari333]

6. maybe the people shooting everyone up are having nicotine withdrawal

might be part of the stress...

[Democracyinkind]

7. LOL. Sounds like a dangerous feedback loop to me...

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. Cigarette prices are up, so it makes sense that the black market goes up

And let's face it, I'd rather pay $6 for a stolen pack of Mafia cigarettes than $10 for legal cigarettes.

[billyoc]

9. No, black market EVERYONE.

:evilgrin:

[Mari333]

11. "Black market cigarettes may fund terrorism"...link

whoa!!! so possibly and inadvertently, the SCHIP tax on cigs will bite people in the arse by possibly funding terrorist groups..woot.

http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2008/black-market-cigarettes-fund-t.html

[billyoc]

12. Too damn bad, I'm not footing the bill for SCHIP.

Tax everyone equally, or go fuck yourselves.

[Nickster]

13. Well, on the plus side, I'm on day 4 of not-smoking.....(again)......

[Warpy]

16. If you're doing it cold turkey

you're through withdrawal. Now all you're fighting is the habit of picking one up when you're on the phone or at the computer.

Soda straws in a clean ashtray can help. Whole licorice root can also help and won't pack on the pounds, either.

Good luck.

[Auggie]

21. If I can quit, so can you.

Six and a half years.

[Warpy]

14. That's the risk you run when you jack up sin taxes

Sin is just so gosh darned popular that it brings out the thieves and black market butts become incredibly profitable.

I remember the tractor trailer loads of black market butts going from NC, where they were 25 cents a pack and untaxed, to NY where the taxes were high, counterfeit state stamps to be affixed at delivery. It was a big mob business in the 60s and 70s.

Addicts will get their drug of choice. All that declaring it illegal or jacking the taxes up too high do is open up a black market.

Funny how the moralists never learn that part.

[NeedleCast]

17. This is what happens when you keep upping morality taxes

[lonestarnot]

18. Well maybe legislation of morality is not possible, ya think?

[Nebraska Blue]

19. Where was the $900,000

missing in the first link??
I read $1700

[Contrary1]

20. Will the government be bailing out the tobacco companies if enough people quit?

That would be either quit smoking or quit buying them legally.

[jazzjunkysue]

22. I hope it encourages places to stop selling tobacco altogether.

And I can't feel sorry for people who waste $7/day getting cancer, either.

I lived in everyone else's cancer smoke my whole life. Even now, I have to tolerate it wafting through the door: The smokers stand just outside so we still have to breathe it.

Honestly, how can you say tobacco doesn't kill brain cells? The smokers stand right next to the door where they're not supposed to be polluting us.

No sympathy for smokers here.

Just quit. Period. Both of my parents did. It's not impossible.