Tobacco.org

Cigarette tax has smokers fuming 

In Frank De Cato's 69 years of smoking, he's seen the price of a pack of cigarettes jump from 15 cents to about $7.

But the additional $1 that will soon be added to the price of a pack due to a state tax hike is the last straw for the 83-year-old New Haven resident.

"I'm gonna quit smoking. I'll have to," De Cato said when he learned the state tax on a pack of cigarettes will rise from $2 to $3 per pack in October. "I started smoking when I was 14 years old. I've been smoking a long time."

By the time De Cato was done describing how he bought his first cigarette for a penny and his first pack for 15 cents, he was on his second cigarette and incensed by the additional tax, saying it disproportionately affects poor people.

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