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Cigarettes jump past $8 a pack

By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | MNaanes@am-ny.com

8:16 PM EDT, June 2, 2008

While some New Yorkers have vowed to quit smoking now that a pack of cigarettes soared past $8, others said fughedaboutit.

Sherrilyn Griffith, of the Upper East Side, had one last cigarette in the pack in her pocket Monday, a smoke she vowed would be her last as the higher state tax kicks in today. She never thought about quitting before, but the new tax cemented her decision.

"That's why I'm quitting," said Griffith, a 23-year-old mother of two who spends $50 to $60 a week on cigarettes. "$8 a pack is really too much."

The state tax on cigarettes goes up $1.25 a pack today, bringing the total state levy to 2.75, the highest in the nation. New York City residents pay an additional $1.50 for city taxes on cigarettes.

With prices soaring past $8 a pack and costing pack-a-day smokers $3,000 annually, city health officials projected a potential 50,000 fewer adult and 7,000 fewer adolescent smokers. Experts say price increases definitely influence the will to quit.

"The two biggest factors that have made a difference in New York City is the tax and the smoking ban, basically making it more difficult to smoke," said Dr. Scott Sherman, a smoking cessation expert.

Tax increases in 2002 spurred a 21 percent drop in adult smokers and a 52 percent drop in high schoolers, the health department said. In 2003, the city banned smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces. The latest increase prompted the city to declare today NYC Quits Day with free nicotine patches being given out around the city today.

For some smokers, $8 a pack isn't enough to quit. Mary Ryan, 37, of Forest Hills, said she'd pay up to $15 before she quit, especially with the two-for-one deals she finds.

"It's hard to stop smoking," she said. "I've taken pills and they didn't work. A dollar more isn't going to do it."

Some smokers said they'd buy cigarettes elsewhere, a trend Arthur Katz, the executive director of the New York State Association of Wholesale Marketers & Distributors, expected. More smokers will buy from reservations and bootlegging will increase, he said.

"When the price goes up, people find other means," he added.

Owners of Midtown newsstands said they'd heard the cry to quit over soaring prices before. Mo Furuque has owned newsstands for 10 years and has seen people promise to quit, as many of his customers did yesterday when he told them of the tax increase.

"A lot of people say I quit, but they just come back again," he said. "One week or two weeks and again I see them."