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Tobacco critics rip packets’ relabeling

Taxes less if it’s marked for pipes

By L. Lamor Williams

Layla Amussen rolls her own cigarette in her Little Rock home on Friday. She said she can save about $50 a month by not buying packaged cigarettes.

Photo by Karen E. Segrave

Layla Amussen rolls her own cigarette in her Little Rock home on Friday. She said she can save about $50 a month by not buying packaged cigarettes.

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Layla Amussen likes to smoke. She knows cigarettes are bad for her health, but says she’s not likely to quit anytime soon.

With increased federal and state tobacco taxes raising the cost on some brands to more than $5 per pack or by about $12 a carton, she’s changed her habits.

Near the end of the month when money is running low,she goes to her usual tobacco store and buys a $4.25 roll your-own-cigarettes kit and maybe one pack of pre-rolled cigarettes.

She tried one other cost cutting measure: using rougher-cut pipe tobacco. That didn’t work out.

“It was very harsh,” she said, grimacing and patting her throat with her right hand. “It almost hurt ...

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This article was published November 30, 2009 at 4:44 a.m.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/30/2009

Read 7 comments on this story.

Comments on Tobacco critics rip packets’ relabeling

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SpecialEd says...

I am not a smoker. I don't like the smell of cigarettes. I appreciate the limitations of smoking indoors. But...I enjoy freedom even more. Why are consenting adults using a legal product punished by such a high tax. Is it because those who don't smoke don't care? What if coffee was taxed a such rate to pay for something else? Would there be more outcry? It is only a matter of time before something you use is taxed this way. Wake up America!

November 30, 2009 at 7:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

TheBatt says...

"Near the end of the month when money is running low,she goes to her usual tobacco store and buys a $4.25 roll your-own-cigarettes kit and maybe one pack of pre-rolled cigarettes."

Here's a shocking idea... how about you give up your disgusting, sickening, and EXPENSIVE habit. Your lungs will thank you, your pocketbook will thank you, and you wont' reek of nasty tobacco smoke...


It is so absolutely disgusting how people want to whine and complain about the high cost of vile habits - ones that they CHOOSE to engage in. One that will likely cost them their lives far sooner than it should.

And while I don't like taxes in general, the tobacco taxes are consumption taxes - 100% voluntary. You don't want to pay the taxes, then don't buy the product. What a really simple concept. But it is also disgusting that the tobacco industry is now circumventing the law by relabeling (technically tax fraud....).

And lets be totally honest - does anyone have a real handle on the total impact of tobacco use and health care costs in this nation?

November 30, 2009 at 8:34 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

marvincampbell_ca.rr.com says...

Were it not for the tobacco industry, marijuana would have been legalized years ago. And unlike tobacco, there exists not a single incidence of death related to smoking marijuana.
Isn't it funny how certain things which kill people remain legal, while safer alternatives are ignored or actively resisted by those enjoying the economic benefit?
So how much damage does an industry have to cause to society before we even question its right to exist?
And I'm NOT just talking about the tobacco industry. Coal and oil kill more people than tobacco.
It's time to deny corporate personhood and take control of our world again.

November 30, 2009 at 8:50 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

orthodoxDrew says...

i think people should be able to smoke on private property however the owner of that property wishes. however, i think tobacco companies prey on the addiction they create with their product and taxes should be formed to cost them out of the market. you want it cheap, grow it in your yard.

November 30, 2009 at 9:26 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Sir_Golfsalot says...

TheBatt (sounds like an appropriate name to me),

When something that you enjoy, something that's legal, is taxed beyond reason and you start to whine about it just think back to your comment and keep your mouth shut!!

November 30, 2009 at 10:08 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

conservativearkansan says...

Amussen saves any papers she has left over to roll tobacco salvaged from partially smoked cigarettes, she said.

GAG me....

November 30, 2009 at 10:14 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

babyhuey226 says...

LISTEN UP BATT. DO U LIKE TO DRINK ALCHOL OR SODAS OR COFFEE? IF U DO REMEMBER THIS. ALL THE PEOPLE WHO SMOKE PAY MORE TAXES THAN THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T. AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FREE COUNTRY TO DO AS WE PLEASE AND LIVE LIFE THE WAY WE WANT IT. I SMOKE BUT I ALWAYS ASK WHOEVER I AM AROUND IF THEY SMOKE OR NOT AND I NEVER SMOKE AROUND PEOPLE WHO DON'T. AND JUST THINK MORE PEOPLE DIE FROM WRECKS AND ALCHOL THAN TOBACCO PRODUCTS. YOU ON THE OTHER HAND HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN BITCH ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE DO TO THEIR OWN BODIES. YES IF THEY WOULD LEGALIZE POT I WOULD SMOKE IT. REMEMBER MAN MADE BOOZE GOD MADE GRASS SO WHO DO U TRUST. POT IS MORE HELPFUL THAN MOST OF THE PILLS YOUR DOCTOR HAS YOU ON AND THEY ARE MORE DANGEROUS SO THINK BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH UP ABOUT PEOPLE WHO SMOKE. WE PAY TAXES AND LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY TO AND IT WAS FOUNDED ON FREEDOM OF SPEACH AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AND YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE AND SOME HAPPINESS THEN U WOULDN'T HAVE TIME TO BASH THE REAL TAX PAYERS IN THIS COUNTRY

November 30, 2009 at 3:34 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

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