All of this, is because of a tax increase on tobacco products taken by the United States Congress in early 2009.
The Federal tax on cigarettes was doubled from about fifty cents to a dollar.
If Congress had stopped, right there, the effect would be that in Missouri, where we enjoy the lowest state taxes on cigarettes in the civilized world, of only 17 cents a pack, a carton of cheap cigs in Missouri would have increased from about $15 to $20. I can buy 24/7 brand cigarettes many places today for $20.
And 24/7 cigs are good, tasty, mild commercial cigarettes made in Oklahoma. Except for perceived status they ought to be the number one cigarette in the entire USA.
In 2009 the price of a carton of little cigars in Missouri was about five dollars.
It still isn’t much more, because the makers added enough tobacco to little cigars to put them in a different tax bracket.
Big tobacco demanded and got a tax increase on roll your own cigarette tobacco to about $26 a pound, so that the tax would be the same on home rolled cigs as store bought.
The makers of Gambler changed the cut slightly and labelled it as pipe tobacco, taxed at ten times less.
I have mixed emotions about trying to create a definition of premium pipe tobacco. I know what it is, when I taste it.
RYO type pipe tobacco in Missouri is about $10 a pound and premium is about $16 a pound. The extra cost is likely for the added flavorings, and higher grades of tobacco, every bale of which is graded by the government.
In a nation of three hundred thirty million maybe a million? of us buy one pouch of Prince Albert, or Capstan a year.
The current law taxes an ounce of Prince Albert and an ounce of Capstan, the same.
Let’s quit winner, shall we?
Tell me what we can gain, and I’m listening.