When you tax a commodity to the sky, don't be surprised when the trade in that commodity goes elsewhere, and you lose the tax revenue you had hoped to get. Let this be a lesson to you in basic economics. Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other states will now benefit and collect their much-lower, and more-reasonable cigarette taxes, as New Yorkers looking to save a buck on smokes start looking out of state to buy them. Organized crime is probably already on this like flies on shit, and making a fortune -- none of which you will ever see.
Also, don't be surprised when price gouging occurs because no one is paying attention, or because pricing rules are contradictory or misunderstood: in my neighborhood, a pack of Marlboro Lights is now selling from anywhere between $11.50 and $14.00, depending which store you go into.
You do realize I could buy three six-packs of barely-drinkable-piss-water for that, get behind the wheel and kill more people in 30 seconds than my second-hand smoke has in the last 27 years?
Bunch of assholes in Albany. You should all be shot, and as an added bonus, we can fix it so that your final cigarette before the firing squad will have been purchased in Vermont.
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