Spring Break
Smoke less, save more
Jason M. Wallace
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Opinion
I had my first cigarette at the age of 15. Since then, I have been an on-and-off smoker. I have never labeled myself as a smoker because I have always felt that that title is earned after a pack-a-day habit.
However, this denial of the title of "smoker" encouraged me to smoke more and more often, and after increasing concern from friends and loved ones, this is my first year in joining the community of people who have vowed to quit smoking as their New Year's resolution. Although the road to quitting may be slow and steady, the financial benefits of giving up the addiction are more than enough to keep me striving for a smoke-free life.
First of all, as any smoker or news watcher has noticed, the tax on tobacco has increased. The federal cigarette excise tax as of April 1 is now $1.01 and the North Carolina state tax is 35 cents. So, just off of taxes alone, the pack-a-day smoker in North Carolina spends $496.40 each year on cigarettes.
I went to Sheetz to find their range of prices on tobacco products -- from the cheapest brand of cigarettes to one of the more expensive brands. The Pall Mall brand is currently $2.62 per pack, and Camel, my smoke of choice and usually one of the more expensive brands, rings in at $3.74 a pack. With this price range, a pack-a-week would cost a smoker $136.24 to $194.48 a year and a pack-a-day smoker could shell out anywhere from $956.30 to $1,365.10 a year.
If these prices were to remain stagnant for four years, the pack-a-day college student in North Carolina would pay more for cigarettes in a year than a semester's tuition at ECU by the time they graduate.
Besides the short-term costs of smoking, the long-term health effects also come with a price tag. There are people who have been smoking their entire lives and have not been affected by the typical heart disease or array of cancers that come with regular smoking habits. However, a cigarette habit alone adds big expenses to a health insurance plan.
Smoking-related health problems continue to injure our already crippled economy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that cigarette smoking results in an estimated 443,000 premature deaths each year, and costs the economy $193 billion in health care expenses and lost time from work.
Americans are plagued enough as it is by marketing and advertisements that get them to buy things they don't need and probably don't want in the first place. A purchase of a pack of cigarettes or some other tobacco product may start as a harmless trend, but after a regular addiction sets in, it becomes like another monthly bill to pay.
Addictions and habits of any sort are hard to break, but maybe with the increase in taxes and medical expenses, a broken wallet may be the greatest incentive to break the habit of picking up a pack of cigarettes.
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.
However, this denial of the title of "smoker" encouraged me to smoke more and more often, and after increasing concern from friends and loved ones, this is my first year in joining the community of people who have vowed to quit smoking as their New Year's resolution. Although the road to quitting may be slow and steady, the financial benefits of giving up the addiction are more than enough to keep me striving for a smoke-free life.
First of all, as any smoker or news watcher has noticed, the tax on tobacco has increased. The federal cigarette excise tax as of April 1 is now $1.01 and the North Carolina state tax is 35 cents. So, just off of taxes alone, the pack-a-day smoker in North Carolina spends $496.40 each year on cigarettes.
I went to Sheetz to find their range of prices on tobacco products -- from the cheapest brand of cigarettes to one of the more expensive brands. The Pall Mall brand is currently $2.62 per pack, and Camel, my smoke of choice and usually one of the more expensive brands, rings in at $3.74 a pack. With this price range, a pack-a-week would cost a smoker $136.24 to $194.48 a year and a pack-a-day smoker could shell out anywhere from $956.30 to $1,365.10 a year.
If these prices were to remain stagnant for four years, the pack-a-day college student in North Carolina would pay more for cigarettes in a year than a semester's tuition at ECU by the time they graduate.
Besides the short-term costs of smoking, the long-term health effects also come with a price tag. There are people who have been smoking their entire lives and have not been affected by the typical heart disease or array of cancers that come with regular smoking habits. However, a cigarette habit alone adds big expenses to a health insurance plan.
Smoking-related health problems continue to injure our already crippled economy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that cigarette smoking results in an estimated 443,000 premature deaths each year, and costs the economy $193 billion in health care expenses and lost time from work.
Americans are plagued enough as it is by marketing and advertisements that get them to buy things they don't need and probably don't want in the first place. A purchase of a pack of cigarettes or some other tobacco product may start as a harmless trend, but after a regular addiction sets in, it becomes like another monthly bill to pay.
Addictions and habits of any sort are hard to break, but maybe with the increase in taxes and medical expenses, a broken wallet may be the greatest incentive to break the habit of picking up a pack of cigarettes.
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.
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