So today the big news is that smokers are feeling picked on. Can I get on a soap box for a minute? Here is the news,
CNN)— Larry Jukes said he remembers when he could buy 10 cigarette packs for $2.50.
Coloradan Larry Jukes says he’s upset about the hike but doesn’t expect it will persuade him to quit smoking.
But he’d now take the days when — just last month — he could buy his carton of choice for $49.
Thanks in part to the largest-ever federal cigarette tax increase — a nearly 62-cents-a-pack hike that starts Wednesday but was reflected in many prices earlier — Jukes on Tuesday paid more than $58 for a 10-pack carton at the Cigarette Store in Denver, Colorado.
That same store was selling it about $9 cheaper weeks ago. Jukes and other shoppers there said they feel stuck and taken advantage of.
“They’re picking on us poor people, the ones that smoke,” Jukes, a 65-year-old who has been smoking since he was a teen, said of the government. “They have been for years.” read more here
Now let me tell you why I have no sympathy for smokers. First of all both, BOTH, BOTH of my parents died from lung cancer. Directly caused by smoking. But that isn’t the worst, my brother and I were raised in a household where there was no fresh air to breath, we were forced to breath tainted air our whole lives. My children were exposed to it every time I visited my parents. I still get a migraine if I even walk past someone smoking outside a store, and it is not my imagination, like I was told for so many years. Smoking kills, it kills the ones doing it and it kills the ones living nearby. So I say yeah, TAX IT, TAX IT, TAX IT! In fact maybe if we tax to the hilt every foul and dangerous habit and use that money to run the government we might have a cleaner and more prosperous country! I am not being callous, I know that many smokers started before the dangers were known. But they know now! So there is no excuse. There is never and excuse for endangering children and others around you. Smokers are selfish, selfish, selfish. I dearly loved my parents and I miss them terribly.
Having clean air to breath Works For Me this Wed, ok, I am getting off of my soapbox now.
zig in Fla. says
Well said..BRAVO! 😉
Rodney Olsen says
My dad smoked heavily when I was young which put me off trying cigarettes for life. I completely agree that smokers should be taxed more. The unfortunate side effect of that is that governments come to rely on the tax they receive from smokers and so refuse to take the far better action of phasing out cigarette smoking altogether.
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Penny says
very true
mub says
The indoor smoking ban here was just introduced last July and people are fighting it and screaming about how unjust it is. I don’t feel any sympathy for them either. It’s not very just that I have to sit and breathe in their bad habits either!
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Jena (Organizing Mommy) says
wow.. how sad for you to have lost both parents that way!! HuGS. I can see why you feel so passionately about it. I don’t have any people close to me that are 👿 smokers, but I know it is evil and addicting. http://pennyraine.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_evil.gif
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Kara S says
So sad to hear that you lost your parents like that. Unfortunately, my husband is a smoker and I know cigs are highly addicting. He’s “quit” before and I loved the cleaner air. I’m praying the increase in taxes will lead him to quit again and for good.
When I think about the taxation on cigarettes, I can see valid points on both sides of the argument for the tax. How beneficial is taxing only cigarettes to fund a program? Yes, people are addicted to them, but they also have the ability to quit. When cigs become unaffordable, people will begin quitting and the amount of funding for the SCHIP program will decrease. So, good point is people will quit, bad point is funding will go away. A better solution would have been a “smaller” tax increase on cigs plus additional tax increases on alcohol which also kills thousands of people a year. That way the source of funding is slightly more balanced. I was impressed when I opened our county newspaper earlier today and saw an advertisement from a local high school student group stating that alcohol, and not just cigs, needed to be taxed. They cited stats for smoking as well as alcohol use and dangers of both. Very well presented!
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