Buying Cigarettes Online: Suck It, New York

Cigarettes are heavily taxed, especially in Dethroner’s state of operation, New York. Many New Yorkers try to get around buying cigarettes in retail—where prices can reach over $8-a-pack—by buying online, despite a continuing crackdown by state and federal government in conjunction with termination of payment processing from credit card companies.

Native American cigarette shops claim the right of self-taxation, making the sale of tobacco products legal, but some anti-smoking activists like New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have levied that websites run by native Americans selling tobacco are illegal and should be shuttered, in addition to increased oversight by the U.S. Postal Service.

Various bills have been passed and proposed that would continue to restrict consumers’ ability to purchase via the internet and receive cigarettes by mail. In short, while buying cigarettes and tobacco online has not been made totally illegal, it is well on its way to being so.

So where can you get smokes online? Good question. I’ve had little success buying cigarettes online, as most refuse to ship to New York and those that will tend to sell cigarettes sold in Eastern Europe—I have no desire to smoke cigarettes that have been shipped across the Atlantic twice, no matter how cheap they may be.

Buying rolling tobacco and its accouterments seems to be much easier, especially when full- or near-full-price is paid. Sadly, even the most legit shops refuse to ship to New York. Looks like I’ll need to find a decent tobacconist in the city.