States Brace for Cigarette Backlash/

Yahoo News ^ | 13 July 2002 | DAVID CRARY

[SheLion]

Tom Ryan, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA, said the tobacco company supports a crackdown on tax evasion.

Good ole Philip Morris! Sticking it to the smokers AGAIN!

[SheLion]

"But with taxes at what a lot of smokers view as an unreasonable level, the states aren't going to get the revenues they're projecting and will find themselves with increasingly hard-to-enforce legal problems," he said.

What did the states EXPECT? SMOKERS TO STOP SMOKING? WRONG!

Are smokers going to pay the horrendous taxes? NO!

Have we found BETTER WAYS TO KEEP OUR MONEY AND STILL ENJOY OUR LEGAL PRODUCT? YOU BETCHA!

[poet]

"even tax-averse conservatives have supported the increases"

That is BS. They are not conservatives if they buy into these obscene tax increases and interference with someone's life.

[suni]

I figure I will just bum em off you when Im there, if I make it!

[EllaMinnow]

Please add me to the smoking ping list.

[oldtimer]

The smoking gestapo types can go pound sand.

I just ordered six cartons of Marlboros, made in Russia, shipped from Russia for like $16.50 plus $14 shipping, and they are real Marlboros.

Am truly sick of the 'Life Style Police', and the slimey trial lawyers who rip off billions from smokers (awards).

This Country has gone nuts with political (University and media bred) correctness.

[SheLion]

That is BS. They are not conservatives if they buy into these obscene tax increases and interference with someone's life.

I've been going around and around for several years with Gov King and the Conservative Lawmakers. I found out that even some of THEM have turned RINO on us. It's a hard fight, I have to tell you!

[patton]

This is going to get interesting. Very

I love my home in VA. The article is wrong, I think - our tax is actually .025/pack.

My last carton (Saturday) was $23

[SheLion]

Please add me to the smoking ping list.

You've been added. :)

[SheLion]

The smoking gestapo types can go pound sand.

You know it! We have been rolling our own now for over a year! For under $8 dollars, we turn out a beautiful carton of cigarettes.

The money we have saved has been MIND-BOGGLING!

And it tickles me so not to be paying into the state coffers any more!

[EllaMinnow]

Thanks.

[Reactionary]

Good lord. If those Russians are selling cigarettes on the Internet, I need the URL. :)

[Libertarianize the GOP]

posted here

[Madame Dufarge]

In Congress, Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., is leading an effort to tighten regulation of Internet cigarette sales. Meehan's chief of staff, Bill McCann, predicted bipartisan legislation would be drafted this year aimed at enforcing existing requirements that Internet merchants block sales to minors and report out-of-state buyers.

That slimeball Masshole Marty Meehan is always leading the charge for more taxes, more regulations, MORE, MORE, MORE!

I'll bet he's pleased as punch that people who were law-abiding, hard working citizens just yesterday have now been transformed by the Smoking Nazis into another criminal class.

After all, Marty's a made guy in one of the biggest criminal enterprises in the country - the Massachusetts Democrat Party.

Words can't express my loathing for these creatures and their clones all over the country.

[spoiler2]

When prohibition began in the twenties, organized crime stepped in very quickly, to keep America's alcohol needs satisfied.

This time around will be no different. It will take them no time at all to adapt to this new need. When a smoker needs a cigarette, it becomes the most important craving on their mind!

When that ship recently got stuck for months in the ice at the south pole, what was their greatest need? Cigarettes!!

We will now see a failure greater than the "War on Drugs". It will be the "War on Illegal Cigarettes"

The government at war with it's citizens.....Good luck!

[SheLion]

They didn't ping me for that thread, so I didn't see it.

I have my own ping list, so hopefully, they will see this one.

Thanks!!

[dix]

Please add me to your ping list too.

[SheLion]

Words can't express my loathing for these creatures and their clones all over the country.

AMEN, MADAME, AMEN!

Sickening, aren't they..........

[SheLion]

The government at war with it's citizens.....Good luck!

I see a Civil War coming!

[Just another Joe]

"You need federal legislation, because a patchwork approach from individual states is going to bog down."

Translation: "Daddy! Help me! Those little guys are ganging up on me!"

Cigarette taxes can be a reliable revenue source for states if the taxes are "reasonable," Singleton said.

"But with taxes at what a lot of smokers view as an unreasonable level, the states aren't going to get the revenues they're projecting and will find themselves with increasingly hard-to-enforce legal problems," he said.

I wouldn't go back to buying packs of store boughts even if the taxes WERE reasonable.
And you can bet that the states will find themselves with an, "increasingly hard-to-enforce legal problems".