Category: Tobacco Legislation

I wrote to my representatives a while back about tobacco legislation. I had not written about this particular legislation, so this appears to be a canned response. Thought I’d share it with you all.

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act of 2009 (S.1147/H.R. 1676).

The PACT Act would work to prevent the illegal transfer and sale of tobacco products and reduce minors’ access to them.

Here are some last minute thoughts on SCHIP. Most importantly, considering the timing, is some encouragement to continue supporting your retailers. If you are like me, instinct may have driven you to place an extra order for your pipe tobacco to beat the new tax. In passing along some thoughts by Greg Pease, I point out that this week those who keep our pipes and cellars full need our business as they have to cough up money themselves on the stock they have on the floor. Go ahead and place another order. There’s never a bad reason eh?

Roll yer own ciggy and small cigar smokers are hardest hit. The RYO crowd have been getting hit with a $1.10 per pound tobacco tax the same as we pipe smokers. That buck a pound is jumping to almost 25 dollars!

Apparently what you do with the tobacco after you buy it has something to do with how hard you should be taxed? If I put it in a briar pipe I should be taxed 150% more for it, if I roll it in a paper I should be taxed 2000% more?! How about just taxing the hell out of the papers? Consider that for a second and contemplate how arbitrary this is. Pipe tobacco tax is only jumping 158% (this time) to $2.83.

This time its the state bearing the namesake of a most important tobacco variety.
Virginia has banned “most smoking in restaurants and bars.”
USAToday: Virginia Governor Tim Kaine signed a bill today that generally restricts smoking to separate rooms that have their own ventilation. It takes effect Dec. 1.
Virginians aren’t hit as hard as smokers in [...]