What Are The Dollars-and-Cents of Smoking in the Gem State?

When a person begins smoking, there isn’t usually a cost consideration. It could be what a person grew up with. It could be what their friends were doing. Never does a person begin smoking by thinking ‘Well, why not? I can afford it.’

Strange as it may be, Americans who make the least money smoke more than anyone else. You are more likely to smoke if you make less than $35,000 per year.

Smoking not only has a cost per pack. There is the secondary costs involved as well. Health care will cost more since even without cancer, there are elevated rates of infections and illnesses exacerbated by smoking. Secondhand smoke can cause these troubles in children of smokers, so those costs have to be accounted for as well. There is money lost in employment and even higher home insurance premiums.

Cost of Smoking by State

Well, would you looky there. Idaho is one of the least expensive states to smoke. Not sure how to take that. On the one hand, if you're a smoker, it's pretty good. On the other, do you want smoking to be easy? It's your right to be a smoker, but if you have family they can be affected by your smoking in one way or another.

Idaho’s cost per pack isn’t very high. The average is $6.79 for a pack of cigarettes.

That $6.79 per pack includes a $.57 tax in Idaho used for the general fund dedicated to health programs. You can be happy you don’t live in New York for another reason. Taxes on tobacco run $5.35 per pack here.

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If you don’t want to be considered a quitter, maybe you can spin doctor the phrase into ‘I started not smoking in 2024.’ What happens if everyone quits smoking? What would the farmers, producers, and industry-related workers do then?

via GIPHY