After a $1 a pack rise in cigarette tax in Iowa and cigarette tax tripling in Tennessee sales have said to have fallen by 30%!  Cigarette smoking has become more expensive than ever, but the question is does this mean more people are actually quitting. We all know many smokers want to stop smoking, but very little of them smokers do actually succeed in quitting.

Cigarette packs sold throughout stores and shop in Iowa in 2006 totaled to nearly 250 million packs. It is estimated that cigarette packs sold in Iowa will fall to an approximation of as little as 190 million for 2007. So in the space of a year, smokers have cut down on 60million packs of cigarettes? I don’t think so somehow. If you take the sales from manufacturers of cigarettes the statistics are different, sales haven’t dropped as dramatically as this projection says. Smokers are still buying cigarettes one way or another; there are large numbers of cigarette packs purchased online, and also there are still many cases of cigarette smuggling unaccounted for.

In my view, smokers are being pushed into purchasing cigarettes from illegitimate sources. It is logical that if a smoker has access to cheaper cigarettes, why they should pay the extra taxes then. At the end of the day, the smoking life of a smoker is becoming increasingly more difficult. For those smokers who have been mislead and lured into smoking in the first place you have to sympathize really.

Going back to the initial question of if are smokers actually quitting due to the increase in cigarette costs, well, its hard to tell, but cigarette stores around the U.S do suggest that some smokers may have quit. Stores throughout Iowa reported sales to be lower, but revenues from cigarette sales are higher?! What is happening is outlets are selling fewer cigarette packs and cartons at higher prices. So maybe smokers have actually cut down, or they are probably just purchasing cigarettes from another source.