Tobacco tax for "roll your own" smokers went from $1.09 cents a pound to $24.78.

[joshcryer]

Is anyone else outraged about this? What would happen if hops for beer was taxed 2000%?

[Stephanie]

1. link?

[joshcryer]

5. Here's one link:

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/2400-pct-federal-tax-hike-on

Obviously disproportionate and hurts the little guy more than anyone else. (Note that I recently quit smoking but that doesn't mean I can't be outraged.)

[joshcryer]

15. Much better link:

http://ryorevolution.com/ryo-schip.html

[The Straight Story]

2. People are trying to save others from themselves, they found a form of Jesus I guess

I don't need saving thank you very much :)

[virgogal]

3. Ridiculous! Where did you get that info?

[The Straight Story]

4. Check any RYO website or local dealer, goes up Wednesday (nt)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. It's not ridiculous. When SCHIP passed, the Congress decided to fund it from

increasing tobacco taxes including that giant leap for RYO. Do the search.

[NoSheep]

49. A carton of ready rolled has gone from $29 to $60 in one month

[crikkett]

6. Whoa. that's almost half the proposed

tax on an ounce of pot, in CA.

Is it legal to grow your own tobacco?

[joshcryer]

8. Perfectly legal, more so than brewing your own beer, as far as I understand.

[tridim]

20. It's legal, but requires a 5 year climate controlled cure.

Plant this year and you'll have some good smoke in 2014.

[joshcryer]

22. Not really, a small time op could cure 50 lbs in a month or so.

And there's nothing stopping you from smoking "herbal tobacco" (especially if you don't mind the smell).

[Occam Bandage]

7. Neat!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. This is a tax on the lower and middle classes. I just purchased some tobacco

under the wire. I started to make my own in November when a carton of cigarettes went to $70 and up. To make my own it cost under $1 a pack. Now it will cost between $2-$3. Still saving money which is good.

[joshcryer]

12. I quit but I was digging around about RYO.

I have never been a "heavy smoker" but I couldn't believe this when I saw it.

[ddeclue]

11. Personally I think it's a shame it's not $50.00 a lb

:P

[johnnie]

13. I know

I roll my own and I'm pretty pissed. I don't mind paying my share if it needs to be done, but this was ridiculous. Still only going to cost me about $2.50 a pack, but it is way too much of a tax increase.

[joshcryer]

14. Heads would *roll* if they did this to alcohol.

Even 1/10th of an increase would cause the fires to rain down.

[virgogal]

16. Never happen------pols like their booze.

[yorgatron]

18. does anyone know how this affects cigars?

[The Straight Story]

19. I think the mini cigars you get in 20 per pack, like cigs, go up a 1

Have to double check that though.

[joshcryer]

21. As far as I understand cigars aren't hit nearly as bad.

Good cigars are $5 a pop, the rich can't be taxed, dontcha know.

[Fuzz]

42. Good cigars are more than that

:(

[endless october]

25. i think this absolutely will eventually happen to alcohol.

[devilgrrl]

17. Say Hello to Black Market Tobacco!

You watch!

[laststeamtrain]

23. My 20 dollar pound of additive free tobacco went to 40 something dollars.

The tax hike is more than the product!

I'm plenty outraged.

How about an f'ing J CREW yuppie clothes tax instead.

[leftinportland]

29. but the tax is only about $7 on that 5 oz can...

We must roll the same brand. I was told by the store I buy my tobacco from that the price of a 5.39 oz can would double due to the tax. Looks like the retailers are using the tax as an excuse to raise their prices even higher.

[laststeamtrain]

33. Brands...

The 20 dollar pound bag was Farmer's Gold Additive-free. It'll be about 45 dollars now.

I saw the 5.something ounce can of American Spirit today was 33 dollars.

FG has a six ounce bag @ 26 dollars or so.

There's a factory made brand of additive free cigarettes called Natives. I've had them & liked them OK. Some mail-order places are still saying they're selling them for 15--20 dollars a carton. They say they're on sovereign territory (ie Indians Reservations) & therefore no tax.

I'm making some calls tomorrow.

This is a mess.

[joshcryer]

45. They're going after the reservations now, though.

Even the Russian imports are being hit by customs (same brand just made overseas).

[endless october]

24. regressive tax on the poor.

[ContinentalOp]

35. I don't think the term regressive is meaningful here.

This isn't a necessity like food, clothing or rent.

[laststeamtrain]

26. Here's a chart from a mail order place.

Cigarettes: $6.20 More Per Carton

Large Cigars: Up to $.40 More Per Large Cigar

Little Cigars: $9.70 More Per Carton

Pipe Tobacco: $1.73 More Per Pound

RYO/MYO Tobacco: $23.68 More Per Pound (not a Typo)

Chewing Tobacco: $.31 More Per Pound

Snuff: $.93 More Per Pound

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

28. The tubes to make the cigarettes are going up too.

[Ghost in the Machine]

27. I've been rolling my own for the past 2 years..

I was spending $6/day on cigarettes before that. When I started rolling my own, my cost reduced to $7.95/week for a bag of tobacco and box of tubes. I've been trying to quit since the beginning of this month because of the coming price increase. Now I buy a single pack at $3.06 (tax included) and it lasts me about 4 days. Tomorrow is my last day of smoking as I refuse to pay $4.00 (or more) for a pack of smokes. The next step for me would be growing my own... but if I'm going to grow something to smoke, it isn't going to be tobacco...

[ContinentalOp]

30. So the tax works?

:shrug: Sorry to put it that way but...

[The Straight Story]

31. No, the tax was put there to raise money for kids

instead it will hurt the poor and not raise the needed funds.

[Spider Jerusalem]

32. Pointed question:

if SCHIP is to be funded off the back of tobacco taxes, and fewer people smoke as a result of punitive taxation, what then will be the source of funding for all the things tobacco excise tax presently pays for?

[ContinentalOp]

34. If everyone stops smoking then we'll have to find other places to get those taxes.

No way are the 50 million or so addicts in this country going to quit overnight because of this though.

$40 for a POUND? Do you have any idea how much weed is? On the one hand you have casual drug users saying, "please decriminalize drugs. We'll pay the tax, we don't care!" and then on the other side you have smokers mad that they have to pay an extra, what, 3 cents per cigarette!?

And if we can cut down on smoking won't that make health care cheaper overall in the long run?

[joshcryer]

47. Actually, studies show that in the long term smokers lower health care costs.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/337/15/1052

It's sort of grim in a way.

[leftinportland]

40. then who funds SCHIP...

If the gov. thought it would really cause millions to quit they would never have funded SCHIP with a cig tax. They know damn well what they're doing - tax the poor nicotine addict - very easy since the addicts have been demonized for years.

[joshcryer]

46. Many people are quitting over this.

It's going to be underfunded.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

36. I'm a smoker and I don't appreciate punitive taxes, but honestly I don't mind this.

a) It pays for schip and b) It's one more reason to quit. Yeah, I know nanny state and all that BS, but smokers I don't believe pay their fair share of the costs they put on our health care system.

[joshcryer]

48. Once enough people quit smoking I hope you and others like you back an alcohol tax.

Those tax dollars will have to come from somewhere.

[Fuzz]

37. I'm a RYO person and bought a shitload a couple weeks ago

[santamargarita]

38. I'm looking at this site

http://www.dutyfreedepot.com/
Any ideas?

[Canuckistanian]

39. This will backfire, big time. And I know from experience

Here in Ontario, the provincial government decided to hike tobacco taxes about 200%, if I recall. Everyone (except the smokers) thought it was a GREAT idea.

Hey, we thought, more people will be discouraged from smoking, more will quit and the government gets a boost in revenues that can be used for healthcare! Win, win, right?

Wrong.

Because cigarettes were so expensive, a BOOMING black market trade sprang up. And with it, the usual suspects of biker gangs and small-time hoods flourished.

There were stories of trucks being hijacked and stores being broken into, all to get those now VERY VALUABLE cigarettes.

Another side effect was the rise of "counterfeit" no-name cigarettes and tobacco pouches that came from the Indian reserves in the Mohawk territories. Rumor were that this tobacco was coming from reputable tobacco companies, OUT of Ontario, INTO the reserves and repackaged. With kickbacks all around. But the tobacco was STILL cheaper because there was no tax.

In the end, the government ended up LOWERING taxes again just to stop this lawlessness, and it seems to have been effective.

I'll have to look and do some research, but I'm pretty sure it happened that way.

[joshcryer]

50. That's almost certainly what's going to happen.

This is prohibition level stuff we're talking about here.

[1]

41. i think its all part of a plan for the 2010/12 elections...

alienate the smoker vote, alienate the uaw/union vote.

its all part of some sort of plan...

[pipoman]

43. alienate the gun owner vote n/t

[1]

44. good catch. i guess the plan is for a trifecta, at least...