Tobacco.org

Rolled gold: Taxing time for smokers 

Smokers are taking up the old ritual of hand-rolling cigarettes and the new practices of e-commerce to get around Pennsylvania's month-old cigarette tax increase.

State officials fear the two options — one legitimate, one questionable — could shave millions of dollars from state tobacco tax revenue.

But Jennifer Davis just wants to save a few bucks.

''I'm addicted, I can't quit, so I might as well do it cheap,'' said Davis, 23, of Lancaster County, who has been smoking for eight years.

Standing in front of a wall of rolling tobacco, papers and rolling machines in the Tobacco Shoppe in Lancaster, Davis lamented, ''I've never rolled a cigarette before in my life. But even generics cost more than $3 a pack now, and I'm not about to drive to Delaware every time I want a cigarette.''

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