The New Cost of Smoking.

I live in halifax nova scotia canada, just hought id share my experience with the cost of buying tobacco products in my province and also the availibily of cheap, illegal tobacco.

When i started smoking (4 years ago) a pack of smokes cost $6. and about 2 months later it went up $1, not that big of a deal compared to now...

ill save u the trouble and say that 2 days ago a pack cost 13 dollars.... now it costs $15 for a pack of 25 ciggarettes!.

The cost of illegal tobacco is much less and much more available (only $25 for a bag of 200 cigarettes).

My main concern is that the government is basicaly forcing people to either quit smoking or be forced to buy the available illegal tobacco.

The ammount of illegal tobacco being sold is steadily increasing with the cost of legal ciggarettes.

Dosent the canadian government realize that it is forcing its citizens to smoke inferior illegal ciggarettes? these cigarettes would probobly cause mroe health concerns (not to mention they taste terrable)... how can a government tax something soooooo badly! i remeber a few months ago americans where complaining about $6 smokes.... id kill for $6 smokes... try paying $15! is there anything tha can be done about this injustice?

[edit on 25-6-2009 by tylerc25211]

also, are there any smokers in canada that arent in nova scotia? im wondering if this is just a provincal issue or a federal issue.

i'm a smoker a i think they should make it illegal. and the cops should be able to strap you into a chair and slap your face for smoking them. i wish i never started.

hmmm, they are $8.50 in NY (and that's upstate), they are more in the city. I know it sucks. Come over the border to get your smokes, with the currency translation rate, you'd probably really only be paying .10 a pack.....lol

LOL!

1 Canadian Dollar = 0.8601 United States Dollar

finance.yahoo.com...=CAD;to=USD;amt=1

i firmly believe you should get them on the national health system. sounds absurd you might think...
if i was an alcoholic i would get extra money on top of unemployable benefit,
if i was a drug dependant person again i would get extra monies on top of my unemployable allowance.
but as I'm a productive citizen i have to full whack for my nicotine addiction, and as I'm being so selfish with my addiction i deprive my family from extra monies.
however if i got the tobacco on prescription, at the real cost price, @say 20 pence a packet, there would be more money to spread out... just my opion

Originally posted by tylerc25211
is there anything tha can be done about this injustice?

Go to your nearest Reserve...

In Ontario you can get high-grade Native tobacco for $22 for a carton of 200 smokes/10 packs.

That is 11 cents per smoke or $2.20 per pack.

I bet it probably costs way more out in Nova Scotia - possibly as much as thirty or forty dollars per carton...

Go to the nearest Reserve; Support the people who's land you are living on up:

In California they average about $5.50 a pack but its supposed to go up by $1.50 tax per pack. The Governator needs the money to save this dying state...

thanks for all your replies, the "native" smokes are the ones im refering to when i say "illegal" smokes. In halifax if your caught with the "native smokes" you can get charged up to $10.00/ cigarette you have on you.

I do agree smoking is terrable and i do wish i never started but it is very unfair, im alredy addicted and they jack up the price, thats like the cost of a meal changing while your eating it and your like "the menu says $10." and they say, no, thats the OLD price... i know its not that extreem but it is still awful, i mean, if they where always this expensive i probobly wouldnt have started, but now that they cost this much im concidering going to buy the "illeval/Native smokes) rather than quitting, the new cost dosent make me want to quit as some people thik, it makes me want to turn to illegal activity to support my ever growing costly habbit. And i dont think im alone in this, sure there will be a few who quit, but there will be alot more who buy the illegal smokes which are a poorer grade smoke and the goverment makes NO taxes off. I believe i heard somewhere that like 80-90% of the cost of smokes are taxes.

So a bag of 200 smokes has about 8 packs in it for $25 dollars, the goverment makes $0.

if someone bought 8 packs of smokes the government would make like $80.

if they taxed it less would they realy make less money? more people would buy smokes legaly idf they where cheaper and therefore the government would make more money insted of loosing it.

I guess what im trying to say is that they are loosing money by trying to make more of it because there is a WAYYYYY cheaper, redealy available source of tobacco to replace the excessivly taxed/overpriced smokes.

[edit on 25-6-2009 by tylerc25211]

Its a conspiracy, I think smokers are smarter and more rebellous and thats why they want to stamp it out. Please visit conspiracy friend finder.

Switch to vaping with the E cigareete however you can't get it shipped to Canada, I have heard.

As an ex smoker I feel for you guys.

I quit smoking when they first announced the tax increase on tobacco and haven't smoked since. To expensive.

I have a new love. Copenhagon. it is cheap (3 dollars on post) and I don't have to go outside to get my fix. The taste is great also.

I suggest everyone switch to Copenhagan. They actually lowered their price when the tax increase hit. On post pre increase the price was 4.50(4.75 off post), post increase it lowered to 3 dollars on post (3.75 off post)

Originally posted by scoutalet
Its a conspiracy, I think smokers are smarter and more rebellous and thats why they want to stamp it out. Please visit conspiracy friend finder.

Yes I agree it is a conspiracy--and the million dollar question is why the government wants everyone to be forced into quitting
The taxes on tobacco more than cover any costs to the Health Service.
Alcohol costs just as much if not more to our NHS but that is almost encouraged ??
Tobacco defo affects the brain--could that have something to do with any of it ??

I don't know what the laws are like for those of you who are Cannucks, but I noticed that here just to the south of you in the US, the laws changed recently in concerns of individuals growing tobacco for personal use.

Tobacco, along with Hops and Hemp, had been highly illegal for citizens to grow. However, with the recent Tax Hike increases on Cigarettes, they have relaxed the laws on growing your own. You now can now legally grow up to 1 acre of Tobacco for personal use. This makes me think that a primary focus of these Tax Hikes on Cigarettes aren't as much directed at penalizing the Consumer (contrary to what the media would like to tell you) as much as they are to hit the Tobacco companies in the pocket-books by weening their customer base off of being dependent on them.

Unfortunately I smoke Kreteks, rather than conventional cigarettes, so this doesn't quite help me out, but it might be a viable option for many.

So, you too can may be able to enjoy cheap legal cigarettes from tobacco grown in your own backyard and rolled yourself...without all of the nasty chemicals in cigarettes that make them so dangerous (like arsenic and formaldehyde) .

[edit on 25-6-2009 by fraterormus]

Each time I watch tv in the eastern timezone, I see all these dramatic commercials about illegal tobacco sales in Nova Scotia. Sometimes, I laugh at the commercials, and then I feel bad for Nova Scotians. You seem to be forced to buying illegal ciggarettes. The price has been going up here (alberta) but not so dramtically. Du mauriers are about 15$ right now, and the cheapest are Studio's, which are about 8.50$

[edit on 25-6-2009 by TheAmazingK]

reply to post by TheAmazingK


thats about the exact same here, except even studios here are $10 a pack now.... shameful realy... it seems like the governemnt WANTS us to resort to illegal tobacco, those comercials are always talking about how easy it is to get, if its that easy to get why make more people want to resort to it?

Originally posted by fraterormus
in the US, the laws changed recently in concerns of individuals growing tobacco for personal use.

Tobacco, along with Hops and Hemp, had been highly illegal for citizens to grow.

I don't know where you got this information but growing tobacco for personal use is not illegal anywhere in the U.S. The closest thing I could find is that it is highly regulated if you grow for consumer purposes. Also, tobacco doesn't grow well in a lot of places so you should check with your local botanical garden because they'll know what grows and what doesn't.

As for the other 2, yes growing hemp is illegal unless you have a growers permit. Actually, according to the FED it's always illegal but local state govt. in some areas say it's legal. Your laywer can argue that one in court for you if you get caught.

Hops on the other hand again aren't illegal to grow anywhere in the U.S. but good luck finding an area to grow some quality stuff.

And for the OP, you say the reservation grown tobacco isn't any good??? I think you're just used to all the 500+ chemicals the tobacco companies put in them. O'natural is always the best way to go.

my .02

Oh and i'd love to see where in the U.S. it's illegal to grow tobacco for personal use.

reply to post by INJUNJAY


maby it isnt bad where you guys are (native smokes qualitY) but here they are awful... they have whole sticks in them in some cases. and most times there so dry if u turn them upside down the tobacco falls out, yeah there a quality cigarette alright.....

reply to post by tylerc25211


Were you getting the bagged smokes?

Many of the boxed brands get here are also shipped to the states where they are sold commercially - so they have to be of certain quality and can't be in a zip-lock bag.

There was a bunch of news articles last year about counterfeit Chinese tobacco flooding the Native market.

Our government just let it in... or failed to stop it - possibly due to a conflict of interest.

The Natives are the Gov's primary competition - they couldn't legislate them away, so they contaminate their competitor's product to help secure a monopoly.

What if it had been radical jihadis in those containers instead of tobacco? huh?

(I joke - but our government failed)

reply to post by tylerc25211


Please give up smoking right now!

Take it from a smoker, give up NOW!