Cigarette Price News - Early December 2009

News

Japan - Hike in tobacco tax eyed in '10

USA - Tobacco industry remains strong despite tax hikes and bad economy

West Virginia - Newspaper trying to justify higher cigarette taxes

South Carolina - SC has lowest taxes in country, but for how long?

Smoking Alternatives

On the right side of a the page are two links to Electronic Cigarettes, which can be smoked for less money. Electronic cigarettes are a safe and handy alternative to the rising tax prices.

Cigarette taxes aren't causing people to smoke less, they're smoking more

The "goal" of the rise in cigarette prices, mostly from taxes, was to fund a larger government in America, pay for health care, and try to get people to smoke less. It hasn't done much, considering the following story:


"On Thursday, however, the Centers reported that after 15 years of dropping, the national rate of smoking had gone up slightly to just under 21 percent."


"European Union states agreed to raise the excise tax on cigarettes by nearly 30% to try to reduce smoking and improve public health"


America going the way of the EU? They want to turn America into a European-style state, which means very high taxes. We'll see what happens in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Phillip Morris Raising Cigarette Prices, Marlboro Price Increase

Phillip Morris, the company that owns Marlboro cigarettes and others, is raising their cigarette prices by 6 cents. It will take effect on Wednesday, October 28.

More info here

More news:

Salt Lake City legislature wants to increase cigarette taxes to $2

New York state government wants to tax Indian cigarettes, Indians trying to defend their rights to sell tax-free cigarettes

Average Price of Marlboro Cigarettes

Cigarette Price Watch has done a recent tally from our sources around the country of Marlboro cigarettes. We're using Marlboro Reds. We're using around 54 sources, spread around the country, rural and urban, east and west.

The average price for a pack of Marlboro Reds is $5.75. The average price in urban areas is much higher, but taking into account all the states in America and all the areas, it's still under the $6 mark.

The average price of other cigarette brands like Camel or Newport are usually similar to Marlboro.

Taxing Smokers to Pay For America

A lot of people have negative attitudes toward smokers. The government knows that well, so non-smokers don't care about the taxes on cigarettes going through the roof, and smokers can't do much about it.

They want to charge ridiculous prices for tobacco to pay for health care and some new scholarships (and here).

In Chicago, rising cigarette taxes have had the opposite effect, bringing tax revenues down instead of up.

Many smokers in Wisconsin are heading to the Illinois border to buy their smokes, for much less price.

How far will they go? We'll have to wait for 2010, by then, some of the tobacco tax hikes may get taken down. Until then it'll be a rough road.