How much would cigarettes cost if there were no taxes on them?
WAG, I’d say 75-90 cents.
If you have friends in the armed services that have been on a ship recently, they would be able to tell you. Once the ship is out in international waters they sell cigarettes without tax (or at least they used to). Long, long ago when cigarettes were about 45 cents a pack, you could buy a carton for $2.00. My guess is taxes double the cost, but that varies from state to state, but not like it used to be. Funny thing is North Carolina used to protect cigarette manufacturers and they didn’t put any state tax on so I would load up. Now they have very high taxes. I believe Kentucky still holds their taxes down (but don’t spread it around or they’ll change too).
Five years ago, while stationed at Misawa in Japan, we could buy a carton of Camels for $6.00 ($8.00 minus the $2.00 coupon! Woo hoo!). Generics were about $5.00 (no coupon). Then some noisy spouses started to complain about how cheap they were, and how it was contributing to illness and therefore a weaker military force. Well, AAFES (Army Air Force Exchance Service), then decided to to their part to strengthen the military by DOUBLING the price of smokes!! Outrageous! The price to the consumer has gone up steadily, but I’m willing to bet the price of tobacco has only marginally increased since then.
This article gives a good take on the subject:
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1107seattlesmoking-ON.html
If cigs cost $5 a pack in Washington, the black market potential boggles.
You know, rather than taking a WAG or asking friends who serve in the Navy, you all could check any number of websites that have tax rates. Said websites would show Virginia’s tax of 2.5¢ a pack, Maryland’s of 66¢, and NYC’s of $1.31 or whatever it is. I’m sure you could even find the federal tax on the internet.
Then again, wouldn’t be too hard for the OP to do that either.
You’re dreaming, no? 
just be glad you guys dont live in UK, were tax makes up over 80% of the cost of a packet.
johnson you are very correct in your statement, but then the questions here on CQ, would be mostly along the lines of “My Mac reboots everytime I receive an e-mail, why?”. So humor us and remember, you can call me Sam or you can call me Dave, you can even call me Harry, but please don’t ever call me johnson!