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I admit it, I smoke. I'm not proud of it. I spent the first 40+ years of my life without smoking. Why I started is my own fault. I try to hide it from my kids, because I don't want to set a bad example. They know though, and they want me to quit. I know that I should quit, but I had no strong desire to.

Wednesday the price of a pack of cigarettes goes up by more than a dollar. I already have friends who, hit by economic hardship, had cut back or quit due to simple economics. My opinion of the tax is rather flat.

The tax is excused by a desire to reduce smoking. Smoking is a known health hazard, and current public sentiment is that there should be no smokers. I don't believe the tax is purely aimed at curbing smokers though. Hard core smokers have an addiction to their cigarettes (chemical and mental). Those making the tax know that a certain percentage of the smokers cannot, or will not, quit. Those smokers will be increasing tax revenues for the government. The government can't seriously hope to raise a tax, and find everyone quit. They might as well ban smoking instead at that point. The reality is, the taxing entities are going to profit and their excuse is a high horse.

Will smokers get much sympathy? No, and they know it. There aren't many who are proud to smoke. They know their habit is found noxious and dangerous by society and their loved ones. Powerless to stop the tax, they simply stare across a smoldering butt, off into space, considering if they can afford to keep smoking, or if this is their last pack.

I think the biggest effect of the tax will be one non-smoker's don't see. Among smokers, it is fairly common to grant a request by another smoker for a cigarette. Its a sort of good karma thing. If you help out a smoker in need, you are more likely to find a cigarette when you are out. With the price jumping this much, I think smokers who "bum" a cigarette will be less likely to get a free one. The loss of that common courtesy, that act of selfless kindness, is the greatest harm from this situation. There is little left in life where people will do an act of kindness for a stranger, and now there will be one less.