[wipeout97]

Well the republicans fought hard over the past three months to block a $10 a carton tax hike in North Carolina but today the Democrats, having house majority, agreed to pass a $1 per carton or 10 cent per pack increase on tobacco. After fighting again and again to stop the tax hikes I am about sick of it and am prepared to quit pretty soon. I found myself smoking more and more value brands lately only to have chest and throat pains. With all the rises this seemed like a good choice but in the end I feel the Government (especially democrats) are doing everything they can to ensure value smokes are smoked causing more severe health problems. Sure I will probably still smoke the occasional smoke but I simply can not afford new taxes every time I turn around. I have been collecting a trash can of cigarette butts for many years and feel it is my patriotic duty to dump this shit on the white house lawn. Hell......the president caused a $7 a carton tax hike on top of the tobacco industry raising prices to cushion it's high sales loss rate so am I not entitled to see the government pick up my mess?

On another note all alcohol in NC will now be taxes higher depending on the alcohol content so......buy your drinks elsewhere and let this state ruin itself from bad leaders.

[cooldude]

I'm down to my last two packs now from the 11 cartons I bought back in March to avoid the tax hikes. One pack is Sabre lights 100s (made in the philippines) and one is Cobra light 100s (made in Armenia). The cobra is FSC for sure; it says so right on the pack. I can't afford the new prices on smokes here in Florida. I got a LibertyStix starter kit with two batteries and a 10 box of medium cartridges. I am going to use that when the cigs run out. This sucks that the government helped get me hooked and now they inflate the prices with these crazy tax hikes. None of these new tax monies are going to fund anything other than government payrolls IMHO.

I wonder how many and which ones of these elected officials are smokers? How many of them are Democrats (if any)? It seems like Dems are the Anti-smoking party. I guess it don't matter to anyone regardless of their party affiliation what the price is since they just give themselves big raises to cover their costs.

[wipeout97]

When I see a Democrat sticker on any car I want to punch the driver and I mean it (I am not a small guy). Republicans are known cigar and occasional cigarette smokers while democrats are closet smokers till the end. I guess I can't complain too much though....I quit...everyone's taxes go up.....and kids go retarded. Then again did cig taxes ever help anyone besides "safelink wireless"? I mean come on.....

Good point on where the taxes go.....not even the current president can probably answer that.

[wipeout97]

This is a reminder that all cigarettes go up by $1 a carton tomorrow and not Tuesday as expected. Something is fishy when taxes are imposed a day early but the only bright side to this is at least he drinkers are paying more dearly then we are in this round of tax hikes. I stopped by an abc store on Friday and my mouth dropped when almost all bottles of alcohol went up by $3-$5 a piece. I just could not believe how expensive an average bottle of Jack Daniels is now but at least the drinkers are experiencing what we smokers have been dealing with for years.

[smokybear]

they will tax us or our alcohol and tobacco until the cows come home...they figure drinkers and smokers of cigarettes are inhuman!