Roll your own.
My state (IL) raised the cig tax when the Feds did and I said enough is enough.
A simple 'Job' brand rolling machine is under $3.00.Naturally it'll take some practice (I ruined the first hand roller I bought, duh) but after a week or so, you'll be rolling a perfect cig.
A 6oz can of Zig-Zag 'original' tobacco, which makes well over a typical carton of 200 cigs is under $20.00, and that comes with 200 papers.
These taste just like my Camel non filters :-)There's also pre-rolled 'tubes' with filters, but for that you need a different machine (it slides), like from 'Gambler' that's about $5.00. I found the 'Top' brand filtered tubes don't taste too bad. 'Almost' like Camels.
There are also bigger quantity bags of tobacco, but I haven't tried those yet. There's also, 'light' and menthol tobacco.
And DON'T try hand rolling a smoke like Bogey does in the Maltese Falcon. We Americans lost that finger function after WWII ended. Plus, Bull Durham is out of business and you can't buy those little cloth bags any more ;-)
The federal tax increase affects all tobacco products, but loose tobacco is facing the most significant change — from a $1.10 per pound tax to a whopping $24.78 per pound tax.
That was from an article I read about two or three months ago. Verified this for myself at the local tobacco store. A 1lb bag of tobacco went from about 6 bucks a pound to 35 or so.
I remember watching my dad roll his own smokes. He bought the same papers as the potheads did, which might have helped him transition to rolled ciggies and cigars. Then he chewed for several years.
He’s 80 and has been smoke free for decades but is contemplating starting up again when he hits 90.