Cheap but still cancerous

After decades of progress toward their goal of preventing smoking-related illness and death, public health officials said yesterday that they're seeing a worrisome new trend: smokers are switching from high-priced cigarettes to cheaper, but equally dangerous, small cigars. While cigarette consumption declined 33% from 2000 to 2011, use of other kinds of tobacco grew by 123%, as smokers sought lower-cost alternatives to cigarettes, whose prices have risen sharply as a growing number of states raise taxes on them, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, overall declines in smoked-tobacco consumption are grinding to a halt, with less than a 1% decrease in use from 2010 to 2011. This is very worrying news indeed, because of all the efforts to get people off that filthy habit. It's high time for tax hikes on these newly popular little cigars, which are basically plumped up cigarettes. Their slightly larger size nudges them over the edge into a different tax category, allowing them to sell for as little as US$0.07 each (US$1.40 for a pack of 20). This is still more expensive than not taking up smoking to begin with, but in most states, a pack of cigarettes can sell for about 3 times as much. I'm sure governments can milk more tax revenue from the small cigars, which are especially appealing to minors because of the lower cost, and also because they come in a variety of flavours such as grape, vanilla, and chocolate. It's bad enough when adults are lighting up, but when children are hooked, you can tell there has been corruption of innocent minds by those greedy fat-cats whose only purpose in life is to make money from their poison.