Increasing the price won't help. Look how expensive alcohol is and that doesn't stop people going out and drinking it in large quantities. Ultimately it's a culture thing. It's cool to smoke, it's rebellious to smoke and it feels good. Cut that aspect out of society and people won't do it :)

More of the problem of this is a moral issue then money. If you could drug test ($30) a welfare recipient, have them fail, and get kicked of welfare we would save, literally, millions, if not billions.

the issue really is, how fair is it for the little child of a crackhead welfare recipient. mommy got high and now they have no food, then they go into the system, which open another huge can o' worms...

there are a few states with pilot programs like this i believe AZ was testing the water of welfare drug testing.

there is no perfect answer i think to the problems we have with welfare.


on the cigarette tax, screw you non-smokers! :P

we are being taxed, HEAVILY, and it is not with the intent of "helping us quit" OR "paying our future medical bills" it is to put tax money into the government coffers. It is messed up, imagine of there was a federal $1 a gallon tax hike on gas, imagine the uproar that would create.

they should not look at smokers or drinkers or anyone other 1 group as cash cow, it is messed up IMO.


ETA: Governor of Delaware, who sucks, is hitting me hard......

extra tax on people making over 60k a year
extra tax on cigs
extra tax on alcohol
my wife, a state worker, is taking a 8% pay cut AND her health care premiums are going up.....


THAT HURTS.

I agree with dean, smoking for teens and earlier (heck, I seen 6 year olds group together smoking away) think it's super duper cool to smoke but I tend to look at it in the long run. Whilst for the first 5-6 years it may become cool to smoke the person soon regrets it (in the mature age) and finds themselves in a situation where it's not so cool to smoke, but rather they rely on it and haven't got the willpower to give up. Addiction kicks in and the government could tax and raise the prices of cigarettes as much as they can and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference. Well, not enough to make an impact on the masses, they might reach out to a few select people but the masses will continue.

Because I'm a regular at one of the 2 major heart hospitals in the uk I seen alot of people who have been brought in to have heart bypasses performed on them and they have still got the bandage where they have still been opened up on and still need to be stitched up (waiting for another operation and still they are outside having a cigarette. Adding more tax and/or raising the prices again will not make any difference, the growing issue for some people of people on welfare or otherwise will still bombard our hospitals needing major operations to the point the nhs and the private sector are at breaking point.

If someone has the willpower to give it up after so many years well done to them but the impact on those few will barely touch the problems of over crowding in hospitals and/or for the majority to give up educing a never ending circle of problems both for the people treating them and themselves.

Not sure about this thread it's taking some twist and turns and each response seems to be different from the last so I'll end by saying sorry for the bad english, I'm english.

Raising the taxes on on cigarettes will never get someone to quit, but lowering the price on alternative methods for quitting should.

Have you seen the prices of some of those items that can aid in quitting? Lozenges? Gum? Patches?

They cost just as much as cigarettes...so why quit?

From a smokers point of view no. From a governments point of view.. HELL YES.

I'm a smoker and if the increase is warranted then do so.If i can afford it by buying it, then I'll do it till i can't.

Adding more tax to cigs may curb a select few from buying. However, the biggest spin off is illegal importing and distributing (crime). The government tried it here a number of times, and actually to a large degree still are. People are going to smoke, it's an addiction. In reality, it's very difficult to take any decisions the government makes seriously when it is revenue based. "Don't smoke it's bad" but if everyone stopped and all of a sudden all the tax revenue stopped, I can guarantee there will be some very unhappy reformed smokers. ;)

im not happy with your post.
With the tax that people pay on cigarettes they should be getting free private healthcare.
Yet u on about not giving them any care at all.Remember without the tax from cigarettes the goverment would recoup the money from elsewhere and proberly hit u in the pocket as well.

Now what about people who drink - should we tax them as well more because we all know that alcohol puts a burden on the hospitals.

What about fat people - maybe we should introduce a fat tax on the food they eat in prder for them to eat less.

The list goes on and the only people who benefit are the goverment.

Leave smokers alone - we pay enough in tax.(Yes i am a smoker but thats my personal choice)

hahahah "fat tax" the United States will be rich :eek:

ROFLMAO - Fat tax, that's one to remember. :up: :D