Yesterday I went into a Rite Aid in the area to buy some Calomine lotion since I got poison oak/ivy/sumac (not sure which one) from pulling weeds in my yard and the guy in front of me bought two cartons of cigarettes and it came out to be 56 bucks plus some change. I can’t belive that cigarettes are that expensive. I don’t smoke but both of my parents did for a while (they have both quit) and my two older sisters smoked (one is trying to quit now and the other one is dead).
I can’t imagine why anyone would want to spend that much money on such a short lasting high. I understand why other drugs highs are sought after. They last for a while and make you feel significantly different than you are when you are not on them. Anyway, I don’t advocate smoking in any way. I am not completely against it. I would rather people have the freedom to choose or not to choose on a personal basis. I do mind when people smoke around me in places such as restaurants where I sit in the non-smoking section or other private places like that.
Anyway, I don’t know how much he smoked. I assume it was around a carton a week. My father used to smoke 3-4 packs of cigarettes a day and my mother would often smoke about 2. I am not sure but I think a carton has 20 packs or so in it. So, in a 4 day span assuming they smoked an average of 5 packs jointly they would spend $28 on basically nothing. In a year that would be $2555. That is a decent downpayment on most cars. It is a modest downpayment on a condo. It is just another thing that smoking takes away.
Oh well. I just had to tell the other non-smokers out there about something completely innane that stuck with me.
Hey Sqrl! I know exactly what you mean! My brother always complains about how he never has any money, but he smokes a pack a day! To top that off, he also complains about how out of shape he is. I don’t want to lecture him, but when he complains about these things, I tell him to quit smoking and he’ll kill two birds with one stone.
I guess it is easy for me to say so, but he IS my brother, and I hate to see him smoking his life away.
A quick survey at this end shows that that’s maybe a little high–they go about $3.00 a pack here (Midwest). But yeah, you can drop a lot of money on smokes.
Even though a good percentage of the price for cigs is tax, there’s still quite a lot of $$$ for the manufacturer in the tobacco biz. It sure helps that users are addicted.
My sister and I calculated (30 years ago) that my dad smoked $360 worth of cigs a year. That’s probably worth about $1500 now.
Even with domestic (US) sales down, tobacco is making it big overseas. Jesse “The Drug Dealer”* Helms makes sure that tobacco trade is a part of foreign trade agreements.
I called Helms a drug dealer in a Washington Post letter to the editor in August 1997, after he held up Gov. Weld’s assignment to be Mexican ambassador. If you all are interested, I’ll post the content of that letter.
I am still shocked at how expensive cigarettes have become. The last time I was down in Mexico they were selling name brand cigarettes on the street for $3-5 a carton.
There are 10 packs in a carton (20 butts in a pack), so that works out to around $2.80 a pack. A single pack at the store down the street goes for $4.51.
Maybe I should start buying cartons.
Nah. I’ll just have more to throw out the next time I quit. Smoking should be an inconvienience.
