US cigarette sales drop to 55-year low

[guiseppewv]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of cigarettes sold in the United States in 2005 fell to the lowest level in 55 years largely due to enforcement of marketing restrictions imposed on the tobacco industry, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) said on Wednesday.

According to federal tobacco tax figures, cigarettes sales slid 4.2 percent from 2004 levels in the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999, the group said in a statement.

The attorneys general said 378 billion cigarettes were sold in the United States in 2005, the lowest number since 1951.

The drop continues an eight-year decline in cigarette smoking since the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between U.S. states and the tobacco industry that settled state lawsuits over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses, the NAAG said.

Overall, cigarette sales have plunged more than 21 percent since the agreement, which raised cigarette prices and severely restricted industry marketing practices, the organization said.

"It is not a coincidence that cigarette sales are down and fewer people are smoking. The Master Settlement Agreement was designed to protect the public and reduce cigarette consumption -- and it does just that," said Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell.

The major companies that signed the MSA are Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.; British American Tobacco Plc's Brown & Williamson unit; and Lorillard, which trades as Carolina Group and is part of Loews Corp.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers cigarette smoking to be the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. About 440,000 people die each year from lung cancer and other diseases related to tobacco use.


http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-03-09T144335Z_01_N085265_RTRUKOC_0_US-SMOKING.xml&rpc=22

This is defintely a good thing!!!

[johnnymk]

"It is not a coincidence that cigarette sales are down and fewer people are smoking. The Master Settlement Agreement was designed to protect the public and reduce cigarette consumption -- and it does just that," said Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell.

I seriously doubt that any kind of campaign has reduced the sales of cigarettes and everything to do with their high price.

[zippyjuan]

The sad thing is that it is still increasing in the crucial 18- 24 groups. Older people are getting wiser to the effects of smoking and are quitting (or trying to) but for kids it is still cool or rebelious. And no, light cigarettes are not more healthful or less dangerous. Another thing is that more and more of the states are either no longer spending the money or at least less of the settlement money on anti- smoking campaigns as they promised to under the deal.

[nickel]

i wonder if more people are buying cigs on the internet through Canada or somewhere and that accounts for some of the lack of sales here.

[zippyjuan]

New York is cracking down on internet cigarette sales. They recently made it illegal to ship cigarettes to anyone but dealers and warehouses in the state and even won a case against one online seller for not paying the state taxes on cigarettes sold to people in New York. They got a list of the customers and are sending them bills for the unpaid taxes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/18/MNG71AS2521.DTL

New York smokes out cigarette tax cheats
State residents who bought packs via Web told to pay up
Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times

Tuesday, January 18, 2005


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New York -- About 3,700 New Yorkers who thought they had avoided a hefty $3-a- pack tax by buying their cigarettes online have found that the city has smoked them out.

New York City's Department of Finance has sent out thousands of letters to New York customers of Internet cigarette vendors, asking for a total of $1. 3 million in lost taxes. The city gleaned the names and addresses from a Virginia lawsuit against one site, cigs4cheap.com, which went out of business. Some people owe as much as $10,000.

"The law says you've got to pay your taxes. The handful of people who don't are just stealing from the rest of us," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday in his weekly radio address. "If you have a bill for $10,000 for cigarette taxes, you're a dealer, you're not just smoking."

The letters, sent to those who bought cigarettes online between July 2002 and April 2004, give the alleged violators 30 days to pay or face interest and penalties of up to $200 a carton.

Andrew Hoffer, 37, a utility worker in New York, said he was stunned by the letter, which said penalties could increase his $1,005 tax bill to more than $13,000 if he didn't pay within 30 days.

"I thought someone was pulling a prank on me," he said. "I didn't purchase online to intentionally evade the taxes. I smoke kind of an obscure brand called Broncos, and they're hard to find."

Hoffer said he is working overtime to come up with the tax money.

"I think we'll get it all," said a Finance Department spokeswoman, Joanna Perlman. "We're very good at collections. We have lots of tools we can use, including liens on people's bank accounts and houses."

Since the taxes raised the price of a pack to about $7 in July 2002, Perlman said the city has lost about $40 million a year in untaxed cigarettes. But on top of getting the city's money back, the letters are also meant to protect New York's retailers and stop young smokers, Perlman said.

One recipient of the letter, Peter Reiser, 42, isn't even a smoker. He bought a couple of cartons of Benson & Hedges Deluxe Ultralight from the Web site as a gift two years ago, and last Thursday, he received a letter asking for $30 in unpaid taxes.

"Usually those official letters are quite polite, but this one is oddly belligerent," said Reiser, a Manhattan lawyer. "It's several pages long, it talks about vendors' false claims, and if you don't pay, we're going to get a judgment against you, and you won't be able to get a credit card."

What it didn't have was any details about the transaction, which Reiser could hardly remember, leading him to joke it was "taxation without information."

"If I owe them money, I'll pay it," he said. "But it was very cryptic."

A bill pending in Congress would force the vendors to pay each state's excise tax before shipping the cigarettes and would increase the penalty for noncompliance.

[Memo]

"It is not a coincidence that cigarette sales are down and fewer people are smoking. The Master Settlement Agreement was designed to protect the public and reduce cigarette consumption -- and it does just that," said Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell.

I seriously doubt that any kind of campaign has reduced the sales of cigarettes and everything to do with their high price.

I'd have to disagree. Years of forced health classes and anti-smoker sentiment that has helped pass laws such as those prohibiting smoking in public areas, including bars, has greatly reduced the ammount of people who smoke.

[OC]

This woman at work stopped by my desk to ask me a computer question. She had obviously just been out on a smoke break - you could totally smell it on her. I wanted to smack her for bringing that disgusting smell into my personal space.

[faither]

I'd have to disagree. Years of forced health classes and anti-smoker sentiment that has helped pass laws such as those prohibiting smoking in public areas, including bars, has greatly reduced the ammount of people who smoke.

:agree:
Although it seems still to be prevalent among younger folks. Chuckleheads!?!

[zenbooty]

:agree:
Although it seems still to be prevalent among younger folks. Chuckleheads!?!
When have younger folks ever done what they're told?