Smokers feeling abused as federal tax hike hits

reply to post by dawnstar

Thank you dawnstar!
I've been popping Benadryl since Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth cheap perfume was released while I sat in the classroom trying to learn while having migraines and gasping for air. I can't even use regular colognes and deodorant because they cause hives and blisters all over. I have always had to use natural things for human stink for my entire life.

No wonder I have felt sleepy, cranky, and inconsistent. I have been overdosed on Benadryl for 20 years!

reply to post by ModernAcademia

Smokers aren't the brightest imo

Excuse me?! Are you saying because a person smokes they are not smart?
Can you prove this? Let me ask you, have you ever had any alcohol to drink? Have you ever eaten fast food or had a diet soda? Do you know what is in aspartame? Well I'll tell you. formaldehyde is in aspartame; when the temperature of aspartame exceeds 98 degrees it forms formaldehyde which goes directly to your brain and stays there. Think that doesn't hurt your health? Think again! putting a toxic poison directly in your brain doesn't exactly qualify you for MENSA now does it?

It is easy to demonize something you don't like, but I sure as hell bet you would change your tune if they started taxing let's say, bottled water, or beer or wine or anything that you enjoy. Don't be so quick to judge! Intelligence has nothing to do with this thread whatsoever. This is about the government penalizing a select group of people over freedom of choice.

Most people smoke due to stress. Perhaps if Mr. Obama could get something right "for the People" and quit trying to model the U.S. after his hero Che or Chavez and get us off this communist track he is taking us down, then maybe "smokers" wouldn't smoke as much. But with the shape our country is in, who is actually going to quit right now? NO ONE!!
And we all know the kickbacks the government is getting from 'Big Tobacco'!! Talk about hypocrisy!!

Originally posted by ModernAcademia

Originally posted by Griff
Care to give up you vehicle which pollutes the air thousands of times more than cigarette smoke could ever dream?

Yeah, didn't think so.

You think wrong!

PLEASE give me an electric car!

I would LOVE to take a "greener" approach to driving

Plus that's such a horrible analogy
I drive to work because I have to
you don't HAVE to smoke

horrible analogy

O.K. you can have your little electric car, but you better pray you never break down. After the government finishes raping the auto industry, parts will be a little hard to come by!

Yeah dangit!! We smokers get ridiculed and jabbed at by most every walk of life except our own. Everyone has nasty habits.... why not charge for all of them or none at all? Gum, disgusting habit. Sticky as hell and ends up under most park bences, on my new couch or in someones hair. ANNOYING, lets super-tax gum and use it to build new FEMA camps that we will undoubtedly need in the very near future. Geez. What the hell has this world come to. Im gonna quit smoking, cigs went from $5.03 a pack (including tax) to $6.77 here in California. If u just lightly consider thats 1.75 a pack more than before and lets consider it doesnt take long for us Californians to buy a million packs... thats almost 2 million dollars that they will likely end up using to bail out the car companies, or banks. I am so mad I cant see straight. SCREW YOUR TAXES. I THINK WE SHOULD ONLY PAY TAXES ON CRAP WE USE!!! Road taxes?? What if I ride a dirtbike...? School taxes? What if im over 18 and have no kids or family? Get my drift? Why pay for stuff you either dont use, or dont care to use. State tax?? The state should be paying ME, a hardworking citizen to be here. Sorry for the long rant but when your bills are stacking up and ur paying close to 7 dollars a pack per day on cigarettes to help with the stress.... THEY reap the rewards.
"HOLLA IF YA HEAR MEEEE" - Tupac
-Z-

[edit on 4/3/2009 by ZyPHeR]

They definitely should feel abused. I just bought a pack for the first time in a long time (stress will get you every time) and it was $5.35.

I live in the Tarheel state! 2 hours from tobacco road!

reply to post by paxnatus


Who cares what this guy says. Brilliant people have/do smoke.

[edit on 4/3/2009 by Irish M1ck]

reply to post by Griff


First a quote from your article:

At the December meeting, board members will hear public comments and vote on the Statewide Truck and Bus Regulation. If the regulation is passed, diesel trucker owners will be required to install diesel exhaust filters on their rigs starting in 2010, with nearly all vehicles upgraded by 2014

You got a similar type of filter in the works for cigarettes for cigarettes that eliminates or cleanses second-hand smoke the way these diesel filters would do with second-hand exhaust? Didn't think so.

Second:

Your argument is shot down by your own article. In fact, you have further proven my point by comparing the similarities of second hand smoke and second-hand exhaust and their long-term effects on people.

Third:

This article covers the trucking industry and a study about diesel engines. Not every vehicle, especially here in America, has a diesel engine. In fact, the majority of civilian personally owned vehicles are most likely driven by unleaded gasoline.

Conclusion:

Again, the trucking industry has a possible solution in place with filters that can be placed on the exhaust pipes of diesel vehicles. What have smokers as a means of clearing the air besides quitting the habit or smoking in non-public areas?

I just talked to my husband and he says there are NO cigarrettes to be found in most of Cape Cod Ma. He did find a store a got a pack of generics for $8 !!!!!!

There goes our FREEDOM to smoke.

Well, cigs here are $60.00 per carton, lol. fortunately I dont smoke that much!

reply to post by sos37


OK, whatever. If you feel vehicle exhaust is better than cig smoke, more power to you. Care to do a comparison on carbon monoxide from exhaust and cig smoke? Last time I checked you will not DIE from smoking in an enclosed place like a garage. Now, why don't you go and run your car in your garage with the door closed and see how long you last.

BTW, I see you still have ignored my point on cosmetics.



[edit on 4/3/2009 by Griff]

reply to post by Griff


BTW, sos, I take it you actually tried the vehicle comparison because I haven't heard from you since. What happened ? Did you try my comparison or what? So, you're dead now?

it's all a matter of $$$$$
they don't give a crap about anyone's health, not even the children's....

www.guardian.co.uk...

by the way, the longer your computer is on, the warmer it gets, it then starts to release it's own little martini of toxic substances into the air you breath....


the cigarettes are the scapegoats, they hope that you will spend your time focusing on them and not notice all the crap that they are feeding you in your food, in the air, in your environoment, cosmetics, blankets and clothing, and well.....just about everything.

a cigarette is like a black widow spider, ya it's dangerous as all hell, but well, there's also a big red dot on it's back to let ya know to stay away....
but, that steak, the pretty smelling perfume, that nice soft blankey you sleep with every night, well, that is like a black widow spider disguised as a cute cuddly teddy bear, luring the little children to it....
which do you think is more dangerous?

reply to post by Griff

many of the cosmetics have alot of the same chemicals that are griped about when they are in cigarettes, for much the same reason. the want the cigarette to smell good, so they through in some additives so the smell will carry through the air...the particles carry through the air....
and well, they carry through the air when they are used in perfume also....if they didn't there really wouldn't be any use in the perfume, since you wouldn't be able to smell them unless you were on top of them...

reply to post by dawnstar


Exactly. Which is my gripe. I bet Pelosi smells like a French Whore but she is all out for condemning cigs. Hypocritical.

reply to post by Griff


I have a nephew is very allergic to cigarettes, I would never smoke anywhere near him, or anyplace he might be, but well, I also won't wear perfume, this kid spent years swimming in their pool, not knowing that it was touching off his asthma and other reactions. I would go for a ban, if it was directed on those who are sincerely sensitive to these things, if it was actually directed at cleaning up the environment of the irratants....ALL OF THE IRRATANTS!!! but, just centering in on the cigarettes isn't gonna do much of anything....ya, stomp on a black widow, while all the cute little fuzzy teddy bears rampage through our environment....

as least the black widow can be tagged, we know where it is, we can study it.....those little teddy bears though, well, they're all over the place, and no one cares enough to even take a close look at them.

they're all gazing at the black widows.....



[edit on 3-4-2009 by dawnstar]

reply to post by dawnstar


Couldn't have said it better my self.

reply to post by svpwizard


I wasn't really serious when I brought up the Vanity or Cosmetics Tax.
But with the way the government is going on a taxing spree, it probably isn't that far fetched.

Cosmetics ( I added the procedures as well so the RICH could damn well contribute something for a change) are a product that are used by lower and middle income women everyday.

Cosmetics also include daily grooming products like lipstick, foundations, eye make up as well. So to say our hypothetical Cosmetics Tax wouldn't affect EVERY woman wouldn't be true.

I would totally freak if my usual foundation or lipstick that I buy for $12 went to $50 overnight.
That would put this tobacco tax price hike into perspective $$$ wise.

It's daylight robbery.
Tobacco is dirt cheap produce and it's nothing more than THEFT no matter what way you look at it.

reply to post by Flighty



na, there's at least one women I know of that wouldn't be effected that much if they decided to tax cosmetics....
I gave up a long time ago on wasting money to try this or that, only to find out that I will have a reaction to it....
I managed to find a dish soap that was okay, soap, shampoo, cleaning stuff for my house, ect.....and well, I just stick with them...
don't wear lipstick, ain't necessary, or foundations, or moisturizers even....

it's not worth the blotchy itchy face or the blistered hands....sorry....

they can tax the crap out of the stuff and I probably wouldn't notice....

by the way, such a tax would effect alot of guys also.....
after all they wear deorderant, and alot even get into some of the skin care products....

tax them!!! tax them!!! there's alot of homeless kids out there!!! they need homes, tax the cosmetics and give a kid a home today!!!


of course, they won't do this, cosmetics is a huge industry....and we all know that all of this is more about the money than about the health, they wouldn't kill such a big industry like that....we all could be dropping dead on the streets and they wouldn't do much to it!

[edit on 4-4-2009 by dawnstar]

People don't smoke. Cigarettes smoke. People are just the suckers on the end of them.

Tax them to death and give non smokers a huge tax break.

The sad truth is that us smokers will pay the tax to get our nicotine fix.

Not smart? Exactly what age do you think people start smoking at? Right, when they are kids. You don't decide to just start smoking when you are 20 or 30... try 12 or 13. By the time you know better it is too late.