How high do you think the price of a pack of cigarettes has to go before only rich people smoke?

Cigarettes are like any other drug. Addicts will do anything to get the next fix.

probably see a big drop off if it went to $25 or $30 all at once. Incremental increases, 50 cents here, another dollar there, and addicted people just absorb the increase.

But a big increase just increases the efforts at smuggling, as in bringing it in to New York from Canada, or from a tobacco state like Virginia where it’s not taxed.

People will start saving seeds and growing their own tobacco if it gets too expensive to buy cigarettes.

Considering poor people are willing to pay $15 – $20 a gram for marijuana, I suspect they would give up a lot before they would give up cigarettes.

@ragingloli is right, cigarettes are an addiction, and a rather insidious and complicated one at that. $15 to maintain a pack a day habit isn’t much compared to what people cough up, so to speak, to support a heroin or cocaine addiction. There are people who just find it extremely difficult to quit smoking. Every price increase will persuade more people to stop, but I think there will most likely be a percentage of smokers that will simply pay what they have to pay in order to keep smoking. If they can’t quite then they will end up paying whatever it costs them to keep smoking. And I suspect a lot of people in the New York area get their cigarettes from neighboring or nearby states where they are not so expensive. Cigarettes are only about $5 a pack in Delaware, even less if you buy them in cartons, and that’s only a two hour plus drive from Manhattan. You can legally buy ten cartons at time. You go to however many convenience stores in Delaware that you want to and you’re set for a while. You just have to hope you don’t get caught carrying more than the legal limit across state lines or get caught selling Delaware cigarettes in New York State. People will find a way to feed their addictions if they can’t stop.

Oh my, I was going to write $15.00 but I guess that’s not deterring anyone in NYC! My cigarettes are $10.00 a pack which I justify by making them last for at least one week at a time. If I was a pack a day smoker then I’d quit. My bf smokes at least a pack a day and it’s a bone of contention for me- he thinks it’s a cheap vice. Right.

Some will switch to cigars, you get the same hit in a more concentrated form.

Poor people will continue to smoke no matter how much tax is added.
Many people in my part of the world have started to grow their own tobacco. If prices continue to rise then the black market in illegal tobacco will cash in.
Education is the solution. Over-pricing will only work to a certain extent then may backfire on the Govt.

I was in New York two weeks ago and a pack of name brand smokes cost $11. People can buy cartons or generic for cheaper.

Here in St. Louis a pack of smokes cost $4.15 for name brand and $2.50 for generic.

in the UK they’re around £5–6 a pack which is about $7.50—$9. I don’t think there is such a thing as a “too high” price. Smoking is a drug addiction as bad as heroin addiction, and look how many poor people are junkies. People will still smoke even if they have to turn to crime to finance it.

@YARNLADY- The difference is potsmokers aren’t usually chain smoking joints. I would think a little pot could go a long way as opposed to tobacco.

I don’t think raising the price will make people quit, but it will stop people starting. @YARNLADY Also “poor people” will spend $50+ for a bottle of booze along with “rich people” who will also buy dope.

..and when people stop and become more “healthy” business and government will complain that people are living longer and becoming a burden on health and pension resources. It’s a vicious circle where someone will always complain.

@anothermember Yes, the rich buy all types of drugs, but this question was referring to how it will affect poor people.

People will stop smoking (and maybe drinking alcohol as well) when it ceases to be pleasant and enjoyable. Cost doesn’t have much to do with it.

@YARNLADY I know, I was just saying that poor people and rich people will tend to buy the same type of “poison” just at a different quality (as the question said “until only the rich smoke”) , if the government decides to double the price of tobacco I am sure the tobacco industry would find a way of halving the price, even at the detriment to the quality to keep the “poor” addicted ( I mean they don’t seem to care about murder, they probably don’t care about quality).

@rooeytoo Smoking can’t cease to be pleasant and enjoyable as it is neither of those things in the first place. By relieving the symptoms it creates in the first place it creates the illusion of pleasure and enjoyment. Smokers, after all, are no more likely to live pleasant, stress-free lives than non smokers.

From the Gospel according to Allen Carr

A pack of Marlboro, in Tennessee, costs $4.29. big difference compared to NYC. you can understand why truckers buy Tennessee cigs. and sell them in NYC. not a bad profit.

I was 16, when i first started to smoke cigarettes. a pack of Marlboro cost .25 cents. i declared i would stop smoking, once they jumped to .35 cents a pack. then, came ,50 cents a pack and look at the cost today.

All of us have some form of addiction and i guess cigs, are it for me. this is the only vice i have in life.

You can get them cheap in Akwesasne :-D

@meiosis – you apparently have never smoked. If it wasn’t enjoyable then neither is the ice cream I just ate.

@rooeytoo I smoked for 22 years. I also thought I enjoyed it. Read Allen Carr.

The price of cigarettes may cause poor people to smoke less of them, but those of them that smoke, will still smoke.

The price of cigarettes could exceed the price of cocaine or heroin, and poor people would STILL buy them.

(After all, poor coke addicts and poor heroin addicts, still find ways to buy or steal their coke and heroin).

@meiosis – I don’t need to read anyone, let me put it this way, if I really wasn’t enjoying it and just thought I was, I don’t really care because I think I thought I enjoyed it.

@rooeytoo – Alan Carr is a comedian.

@Mat74UK & @meiosis – sorry I have just returned to civilization after 6 years in the middle of nowhere so I didn’t recognize the guy’s name or realize it was a joke. I thought you were being one of those pompous semantics folks who likes to argue, heheheh!

Book looks interesting, I will see if the library has it. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry, I wasn’t joking. Alan Carr is a comedian, Allen Carr wrote a book about stopping smoking. It changed my life, and I try to spread the word like the true convert I am. I’m not alone – click the link and just read the customer comments.

Hooka bars!