California just passed a law which raises the taxes on a pack of cigarettes from $.87 to $2.87.
I think cigarettes are around $7.00 a pack in NY.
Unfortunately, the poor smoke more than middle/upper income groups and thus suffer disproportionately from increased taxes.
It depends on where in New York and what kind of cigarettes. The last time I was in The City, the "better" cigarettes, for lack of a better word, were ~ $14.00 / pack.
For my part, I stopped smoking paper cigarettes years ago when someone I helped get out of a jam bought me an e-cig kit. I was pretty much a chain smoker at the time. Since then I've upgraded my works and haven't smoked paper cigarettes in a very long time.
I've noticed some odd things about e-cigs. One is that it took quite a while for me to stop craving paper cigarettes after I started vaping. I suspect there are some other addictive chemicals in tobacco other than nicotine.
The other thing I've noticed is that except for during the initial switch, it's become a lot easier to go without e-cigs than it was to go without paper cigarettes. If I'm in some place that bans e-cigs (which I think is pretty dopey and is more about control issues than second-hand water vapor, but that's neither here nor there), I almost never step out to vape unless I'm talking to someone who goes out to smoke. I can go for eight hours without vaping with no trouble. When I was smoking paper cigarettes, on the other hand, it was tough to go more than half an hour.
I also have noticed that even in my own home, I vape much less these days. The same 250ml bottle of e-liquid that used to last me a month now lasts for three or four months. I mainly vape after meals and in the evening after work, and even then only if I'm at home. A few times when I was traveling and forgot my works, I've gone for a few days without vaping. I've also lowered the concentration from 2.4 percent to 1.8 percent nicotine.
Of course, this all begs the question of why I don't stop completely. The reason is because I don't want to. I like vaping a few drops of e-liquid in the evening while I'm watching the news. Some people quaff bourbon. I vape 555 e-liquid. To each his own, I say.
The irony is that e-cigs are explicitly not a smoking-cessation device. And yet based on my own experience and those of other people I know who use them, they're the most effective smoking-cessation ever invented. I don't know a single person who stuck with e-cigs past the initial two weeks who's gone back to paper cigarettes. Most also seem to "lose" the addiction after a while, and many just stop vaping without really giving it much thought. They just vape less and less, and then one day they realized that they've stopped altogether. I've heard it again and again.
As I said, the best I can come up with is that maybe nicotine's not quite as addictive as we think it is. Maybe there's something else in paper cigarettes that makes them more addictive than nicotine alone is. Otherwise it would stand to reason that doing without e-cigs should be as difficult as doing without paper cigarettes. But it's not. It's much easier.
As for the health effects, one of my doctors told me privately that assuming that the e-liquid labels are honest and correct, e-cigs shouldn't be any more dangerous than nicotine patches or gums. But he also said that he'd deny he'd ever said that if he were ever asked. The closest I've heard to an "on-the-record" endorsement of e-cigs by a doctor was that if one simply
must vape, to stick to American-made e-liquids and to avoid the exotic flavors.
Rich
