A buck more to buy a pack of smokes

While Houstonist took a post-holiday trip to a local warehouse retail outlet, we noticed several shoppers with carts filled to the rim with cartons of cigarettes. Then, we remembered why: As of yesterday, it will now cost smokers an extra dollar to buy a pack of cigarettes. That’s due to a new law that went in effect state-wide, raising the price of cigarette taxes from 41 cents a pack to $1.41.

The American Cancer Society estimates that the new tax increase will encourage about 143,000 adults to stop smoking and 284,000 teens to not pick up the habit. Of course, that is the goal of the new law – to get more smokers to quit and discourage others from starting. Not everyone thinks the law will work:

"Every time they increase (cigarette) taxes nobody quits; they buy more and more," said convenience-store clerk Abraham Saab. "It doesn't matter if they put cigarettes for $20. Whoever is going to buy is going to buy."

The tax increase "is not going to keep me from smoking. If I get the urge, I'll go out and buy a pack, said Virginia Cezair, 62, after buying a pack of Dorals at the O.S.T. Food Store in southeast Houston. "I'm angry because I don't feel like they should be telling us we should stop smoking."

We all know the health risks of smoking and agree that people should quit for their health. However, if the law proves successful after a few years, what will the state do when this extra money from the tax increases stops coming in? Will trans-fats be next? We’ll wait and see.