Thank you for not smoking. Thank you for encouraging others to not smoke too with this recent tax increase on cigarettes. The price went up by a $1 per pack, that's pretty good news. This means a carton of cigarettes costs $6.41, almost a 20% increase. Who wants to pay that much?!? Hopefully no one.
The opposition is throwing out some worries like - what about losing money to NH or RI (states without taxes)? what about losing money to pirated, underground sales of cigarettes? There's even the murmur of health concerns for smokers if people start buying more underground cigarettes with no inspection or approval to make sure they are truly tobacco, tar, nail polisher remover, and whatever else goes into a cigarette. While these may be valid concerns, I do appreciate the one step to making cigarettes a little less affordable, especially to teen smokers.
There will still be smokers willing to shell out the cash, I'm sure. All I have to say to them is - GROSS! You smell gross, you make me smell gross, and you force others to breath smoke when they choose not to! OFFENSIVE!Yesterday as I was walking across a bridge, I was behind a woman pushing a carriage with two pre-teens walking beside her. The pre-teen boy had an obvious mental health problem and was silently plodding along behind the woman and the pre-teen girl. Mid conversation with the girl, the woman lights up a cigarette. Here's my evaluation of the situation: a woman working with maybe a day center for youth with mental health issues has taken some youth out for a day at the children's museum. These are not even her kids (I know from listening to the conversation she was having) and she lights up! And there was a freakin' toddler with them too. I don't know if it's just me, but this situation seemed SO WRONG. Not only was she subjecting youth in her care to her second hand smoke, but she was subjecting me to her second hand smoke AND her thoughtlessness! And the young, impressionable girl at her side took it all in and who knows how she processed the happening.
Mr. Patrick, if there is anything you could do to stop this from ever happening to innocent youth, I would appreciate it. Until then, thanks for doing your part.
Respectfully submitted by,
A Non-Smoker
I am in agreement with you here, but it's easy for us non-smokers to feel this way I think. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, smoking is a right we all have, but it's fucked up when it is something that harms other people and yet is still allowable!
ReplyDeleteI hope the rise in prices encourages more smokers to quit, hopefully the bad repercussions they fear will not happen. And hopefully that teenage girl is smart enough to know how fricken gross smoking is too.
Is Patrick Duval your pet name for Governor Deval Patrick, or are you talking about someone else entirely? I'm confused.
ReplyDeleteGood post,though.
I'm hoping that a price hike will make my next door neighbor quit. I hate it when I have the windows open and I can smell his smoke in my house, or when I'm gardening come in feeling like I've been out barhopping because I smell like smoke. AND HE HAS LIKE A ZILLION KIDS!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a yucky smoker (smoke free since '03) I didn't care how much cigarettes cost. I would buy cigarettes before food. But all things considered, I was in the lowest part of my life then, eating disorder, chain smoker, manic depressant. Yeah, I'm not any of those things anymore... sorry to bring down your blog.
ReplyDelete