Cigarettes cost society $40 a pack

So this is the real cost of a pack of smokes. Not to mention the price of the smokers health-yes I am a smoker 2 packs a day for 20+ years.My husband hates it, my kids hate it, I even hate most of the time but I can't seem to shake the habit, this information may help!

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Cigarettes may cost smokers more then they believe. A study by a team of health economists finds the combined price paid by their families and society is about $40 per pack of cigarettes.

The figure is based on lifetime costs for a 24-year-old smoker over 60 years for cigarettes, taxes, life and property insurance, medical care and lost earnings because of smoking-related disabilities, researchers said.

hosted.ap.org...

Everyone knows how bad smoking is but this may be an eye opener for many, including me!

I wonder where the comparison with alcohol is. Betcha is higher.

Three months ago I quit smoking, and let me tell you, it feels so much better. I encourage all smokers to have the courage to just LAY THEM DOWN!! The first three days were the hardest, and I used the patch (only used the patch for a month).
Really, it is easier to quit than we are conditioned to believe. I was surprised, and thought I was going to have a hard time to be succesful in quitting.
And I was a heavy smoker, over a pack a day, since I turned 16 yrs, of age. I am now 42...
I am beginning to smell things I have not noticed for a long time, my breathing is so much better.
May you be successful in quitting, jeeze louise. And the cost is higher, in my opinion, than 40$ per pack to society.

If you can not smoke for three days, you can quit forever. Three days and you will have overcome the withdrawal symptoms, but it will take longer to overcome the behavioral and social cues for smoking. I really don't think that the patch is the answer, insofar as it is a nicotine delivery system, just like the cigarette.

My personal suggestion is to speak with your MD and tell him what you plan to do and ask him for help getting through the withdrawal period. A two week supply of a very low dose of a mild tranquilizer and any OTC pain reliever should do the trick for withdrawal.

Then you have to deal with your friends who smoke and who will continue to offer you cigarettes. If you drink, you will not only feel the urge to smoke while drinking, but your judgement and inhibitions will be reduced. You will also begin to identify many occasions on which you light a cigarette without even thinking.

Those are the real challenges and you will need social support to maintain success. There will be some people whom you will need to avoid, because they will tempt you to smoke at every opportunity.

It can be done and I highly recommend quitting, for your own health and that of all around you.

[edit on 04/11/26 by GradyPhilpott]

I haven't had a cigarette since Sunday night. Just decided to quit cold turkey. The only problem is that my roomates smoke, so I'm afraid I still suffer some of the consequences.

I liked smoking cigarettes but at over $10 a pack now it has become a non-financially viable habit.

I went on the patches to start with but after 3 weeks I stopped using them. It's now been 5 weeks since then and I'm still going strong.

I also think that things taste and smell better now. Give it go jeeze louise. You won't regret it.

Originally posted by Journey
Three months ago I quit smoking, and let me tell you, it feels so much better.

Wait like seven years...

Then when you start again, it'll be awesome!

Was for me. Can't believe I wasted seven years not smoking.

Mmmm, gonna have one now.

Originally posted by Psychoses
I liked smoking cigarettes but at over $10 a pack....

Ten dollars a pack! Where do you live, the The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

I really hope that everyone realizes that regardless of how much it costs society,...


It is a legal product that provides great tax revenues.


And since former Surgeon General Everette C. Coop has stated while in the position, that nicotine is as, if not more addictive than heroin...


Then this 'bad habit' that costs society so much, is propagated primarily by corporations,... unregulated,.. and a favorite tax revenue source.


I would hate to blame the smokers for smoking, but moreso the government for supporting and taxing the drug itself.

Do you blame the drug user,.. or the drug dealer.

When they start posting the cost of obesity to society, then Ill take them seriously.

But those "facts" and "figures" are overblown doctored up data by people with agendas.

Start taxing fat people for every pound over their weight limit, and then we can talk about fair. The revenue from a porker tax alone in this country would pay off the national debt in a year.

I see it two ways you either increase the amount tax on cigarettes or you make smokers pay more for there health care.
Why should I have to pay for a smoker to visit the doctor because they have a smoking related illness ?
Non smokers should get cheaper health care!

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott

Originally posted by Psychoses
I liked smoking cigarettes but at over $10 a pack....

Ten dollars a pack! Where do you live, the The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

I live "Down Under" and $10 is for a pcket of 25's. My girlfriend pays over $14 bucks for a pack of 40's. Any Aussies on the board will verify this.

Bloody shocking if you ask me!

Originally posted by Psychoses
I live "Down Under" and $10 is for a pcket of 25's. My girlfriend pays over $14 bucks for a pack of 40's.

Any Aussies on the board will verify this.

I don't know the exchange rate, but they are expensive enough here. I gave them up in the spring of 1995 and have never regretted it.

Here you go, this is the amount of "excise" (an australian term for tax) the gov. puts on our tobacco,

As at 1 February 2003, the excise paid per stick on a cigarette containing 0.8 grams of tobacco is 21.524 cents per stick. Tobacco products containing more than 0.8 grams of tobacco are charged excise at the weight based rate of $269.05 per kilogram. These rates are subject to an increase in line with the Consumer Price Index, occurring in August and February each year.

source

Then to top it off, we have to pay an additional 10% gst(more tax) when we buy them.

I have to agree that I don't regret giving them up.

I wonder what the gov. will do when everyone kicks the habit. They'll be losing a fortune.

Research done about a decade ago showed that one weekend of drinking and smoking by a college student was sufficient to cause nicotine addiction. So, as long as there are college students who go out with their friends who already smoke, there will be a continuous supply of smokers.

The point is that addiction to nicotine comes quickly and the habit is so hard to break that as long as they are available there will always be a new crop of youngsters to take the place of those who finally get around to quitting.

Smoking is becoming less prevalent, but now the US government has sued the cigarette industry for billions to make up for those who don't smoke and to place the financial burden on those who do.

I will quit one day, as the $$$ is getting worse and I really can see it becoming a habit that will be picked out to be persecuted by the tax man and the Volvo drivers.

Yes,.. I wonder where all that settlement money went that the government won.

this is only 1 health problem tho and there are many more that are costing as well.

but who are we going to blame the smokers? or the poeple YOU elect into office and pass these bills that make us pay and up the costs of all these things?

Gov't should pay us $20 a pack ($20 a day?) to quit. That's a savings of $20 a pack for them