Do you think cigarettes will ever "die" out?

[Beev]

Personally I doubt it. As interested as we seem to be in health (hybrid cars etc) our government loves money more, and they make too much money off cigarettes.

 

[BigJ]

Completely? No. However I do think that in the future increased government taxation will create an even bigger black market for them.

 

[iamaelephant]

Of course they will.

 

[JackOfHearts]

Originally posted by: BigJ
Completely? No. However I do think that in the future increased government taxation will create an even bigger black market for them.

There are already hold ups for just smokes... $50 in the register vs ~$50 for every for every carton you take...

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: iamaelephant
Of course they will.

Over here, states and the federal government get a large chunk of money from cigarette sales. For example, CA and NY both generate over $100mill/year in tax revenue from tobacco products. I believe in 2005, the federal cigarette tax revenue was $8bill. Not a small amount by any means.

http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0149.pdf

That chart supposedly shows how much extra money the government would get with varying degrees of increases on cigarette taxes. So for example, an extra dollar in taxes are estimated to bring in an additional $14bill per year. In relative terms, that's a 1/4 of the entire budget for the Department of Education.

So if the federal gov't completely outlawed all tobacco products, they'd have a huge revenue loss.

 

[shortylickens]

Yes but not today.
And probably not tomorrow either.
I'm thinking in several hundred years.

 

[ppdes]

Well if they legalize THC...

 

[ponyo]

No. Too much money involved for the companies and the govt.

I don't smoke, but I own shares in Altria Group so I can profit off of people who drink and smoke.

 

[Geekbabe]

Over time fewer people will start the habit but I seriously doubt they'll outlaw smoking totally.They make too much tax money on tobbacco and besides,if they outlaw smoking they'll turn a whole lot of otherwise good citzens into felons,not an outcome that anybody wants.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Nope, and I smoke.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

they will when the commies come into power

 

[Luthien]

Lol, Jihad funny but doubtful. Likely then it will go underground or become part of the illegal drug trade. I wonder what the percentage of the astronomical tax on cigarettes actually goes to healthcare the issue that raises the taxes higher and higher... Probably 2% if that with the rest paying for raises of our polititions.

 

[compuwiz1]

I seem to see a lot of young people smoking these days, even though lots of them grew up with it, and should know better. I smoke, and even though my son went thru high school as a star athlete, at 23 he started smoking.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Nope. Cigarette companies will always be smart and powerful, and people will be dumb for starting in the first place. Personally, I have no clue why people start these days knowing what they teach you in school. Before you start..you don't have any urge to smoke and you know about all the dangers out it, not to mention the ridiculous cost. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[Jadow]

I think they'll phase out and become less and less popular over time. Each generation smokes less than the previous. In 100 years, smoking cigs will be like smoking a pipe is today. pretty rare

 

[nageov3t]

cigarettes will die out the day pot gets legalized

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Originally posted by: Jadow
I think they'll phase out and become less and less popular over time. Each generation smokes less than the previous. In 100 years, smoking cigs will be like smoking a pipe is today. pretty rare

Do you have any facts to back that up? I go outside on my break at school everyday and 9/10 kids are sucking on cigarettes. Seems like it's more than ever.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: ppdes
Well if they legalize THC...

Yeah, everyone's saying they make too much money from tobacco products, but they'd make a whole lot of money if they legalized and taxed pot.

 

[MikeSci457DC]

Originally posted by: A Casual Fitz

Originally posted by: Jadow
I think they'll phase out and become less and less popular over time. Each generation smokes less than the previous. In 100 years, smoking cigs will be like smoking a pipe is today. pretty rare

Do you have any facts to back that up? I go outside on my break at school everyday and 9/10 kids are sucking on cigarettes. Seems like it's more than ever.

QFT

 

[Vegitto]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500

Originally posted by: ppdes
Well if they legalize THC...

Yeah, everyone's saying they make too much money from tobacco products, but they'd make a whole lot of money if they legalized and taxed pot.

Well, I can tell you that that's not true.. Over here, pot and hash are legal, but the government barely makes any money off of it.. And they tax it heavily, too..

 

[xanis]

I don't think so. Tobacco companies make way too much money to be going anywhere anytime soon. People will always love their sin sticks.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

There seems to be more kids smoking now than ever It's the new form of rebellion.
With increased drug testing in schools and the workplace and a crackdown on teenage drinking and the drinking age raised to 21 in almost all states, smoking and body piercings seems to be all thats left.

 

[TBone48]

I certainly hope so.

 

[moshquerade]

No, but their use will be more and more restricted. Also, medications that stop nicotine addiction will continue to improve so there will be ever increasing successful cessation rates.
Big tobacco will continue on it's dinosauric path.

 

[m1ldslide1]

I think smoking trends swing like a pendulum - as soon as it becomes counter culture enough, it'll be 'cool' again for certain groups and swing back into vogue. At least for the forseeable future.