Tobacco.org

R.I.'s cigarette tax –– highest in nation –– will be what kills ya now 

With the typical price for name-brand cigarettes in Rhode Island about to reach about $8.35 a pack — up from $6.50 just nine days ago — many longtime smokers are rethinking the costs to their bank accounts, if not their health.

Some, like LeBlanc, say it’s time to quit. Others, like Jeffrey Mooney, a 38-year-old cook from Providence, have switched to cheaper menthol cigars. They’re not supposed to be inhaled, but at $1.25 a pack, they cost a lot less.

Still others, like Michael Johnson, a self-employed handyman from Providence, say the latest increase in Rhode Island’s cigarette tax won’t make much difference.

“I think it might change how people buy,” he said, noting Internet prices that are lower than those in local stores.

At least 22 states are considering hikes in their cigarette taxes this year, turning to a revenue source that draws complaints from smokers and merchants and praise from people in the health community. . . .

From the early 1980s to 2006, the average nationwide cost of a pack of cigarettes rose from about $1.75 to $4.25. During the same period, consumption dropped from more than 30 billion packs a year to fewer than 20 billion, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

In Rhode Island, the percentage of high school students who smoke dropped from 24.8 percent in 2003, when the state tax was $1.71, to 15.1 percent in 2007, when the tax was $2.46, according to figures from the organization. Meanwhile, tax revenue from all tobacco sales rose from $117.3 million to $136.3 million when the tax increased to $2.46

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