Cigarettes don't kill people. Smoking them does.

Smokers are digging deeper for the price of a pack of cigarettes today as the largest increase ever in the federal tobacco excise tax goes into effect. The new federal tax is $1.01 per pack, up from 39 cents. The increase means smokers in Pennsylvania will now pay $2.36 in federal and state taxes for a pack of cigarettes. In New Jersey, which is No. 2 in the nation in tobacco taxes, it will be $3.59, and $2.16 in Delaware.
But they are nowhere near New York City, where the price for a pack of cigarettes includes $5.26 in federal, state and municipal taxes.

That puts the price of a pack of smokes close to $7. I was naïve enough to think people would stop smoking when cigs got to a dollar a pack. That was during the Carter administration, I think. They're still smoking and they're still throwing them out the window of their cars, either because they're inherent slobs or they don't want the car to smell like smoke - which is odd behavior since they obviously care more about the interior of their automobile than their own interior.

Meanwhile, they can't smoke at work, in restaurants, theaters or just about any place where there are mammals with lungs. My workplace just banned smoking on company property, which doesn't keep an addicted few from getting in their cars and driving around for 7 minutes every three hours. There's some productivity for ya. And I get in trouble for talking to my co-workers. That makes good nonsense.

So they keep selling them and taxing them, all the while saying how bad they are for you. How many other industries have the company responsible for production making advertisements telling people to stop using their product? One. Tobacco companies.

At a pack a day and nearly 7 bucks a pack, that's roundabout $2,500 that a smoker spends on cigarettes in a year. It must be one Hell of a great habit.

I'd ask them, but the coughing makes it difficult to hear what they're saying.