$4.38

[taterguy]

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[madmax]

1. O.K I'll bite

????

[joshcryer]

2. Gasoline prices, I assume.

[L0oniX]

3. $6.66

[sabra]

4. premium gas? Where CA?

[babylonsister]

5. No! Gas? It's $2.35 here, and I thought that was high. nt

[taterguy]

7. Cigarettes, in the Triad, NC

[babylonsister]

8. Ha! I just figured that out. Told my husband your price, and he said nah,

can't be. It's $3.56 in Guam. ;)

[anigbrowl]

10. Boo hoo for you.

[taterguy]

12. Thank you for your sympathy

[Southpaw07]

13. If it makes you feel any better,

It's well over $6.00 a pack in NY. More in NYC due to city tax. I think it may be close to $8.00

[Hawkeye-X]

43. I was in NY

Saw it for like $9.00

Seriously.

[madmax]

14. QUIT!!!

No Excuses. I smoked for 30 years. Try Chantix - worked for me. No pain, no withdrawal. You'll love it and you've got nothing to lose.

[taterguy]

16. Do you say that to people who complain about gas prices?

And have you read any of the articles about the side effects of Chantix?

Seriously, my health insurance won't cover it anymore it's had so many problems.

[nosmokes]

18. more/worse side effects than death?

just asking...

[taterguy]

19. What a stupid question (no offense)

It's not "Take Chantix or die"

The issue is whether or not Chantix is the best method of quitting.

[nosmokes]

20. you miss the point

because it is quit smoking or die, or worse. so whatever risksn involved w/ an effective quit smoking aid are surely less than continuing a slow and miserable suicide.

[taterguy]

22. Is Chantix an effective quit smoking aid?

That's the point

My favorite story about it was hearing someone rave about it at a bar; while bumming a smoke from me.

[nosmokes]

26. I can't speak to it's efficacy personally, but it worked for mad max ^

and it's worked for others.

[madmax]

33. Worked great for me only took about a month

You keep smoking, no patch, no nothing. Just smoke as normal. Eventually, you find yourself forgetting to lite up. And if you feel like it lite up. By then I'd usually take a few hits and yuck - put it out. Did that for awhile and the urge, need, cravings just go away. I love it.

A friend just started. She got her Rx filled at Walgreens for a little over 40 bucks.

[taterguy]

44. Anecdotal evidence is a really stupid way to make a major life decision

And for God's sake, if you want to make a compelling argument to me please learn how to spell the word "its"

[joshcryer]

37. Cars kill way more people between 14-30 a year...

...cigarettes get you when you are old.

[madmax]

21. Have you seen any ad on tee vee for Rx's

that' 'don't' have horrible side effects? If they don't help you they kill you.

Gas is a necessity. Cigarettes, booze and broads are not. ;-) And btw, :hi: Neighbor - I'm in Apex, transplant from NJ.

[taterguy]

25. Since when is gas a necessity?

Isn't it possible to live a life and rarely, if ever, buy gas?

Well, maybe if you're stuck in Apex it's a necessity :evilgrin:

[madmax]

29. LOL

:spank:

[taterguy]

48. In defense of Apex, the Ocean Grill is one of the best restaurants I've ever been to

So good I didn't mind having to do the dreaded RDU Airport pick-up, which is the only reason I was in the area.

[madmax]

77. Thanks taterguy

I love fish. Haven't found a good fish place around here. I've passed the Ocean Grill a few times. Going to get Mr.Mad to take me this weekend. :evilgrin: :bounce:

[joshcryer]

38. If you work low wage jobs cigarettes are a necessity.

There's a reason hamburger flippers smoke. Their lives would be even worse without an ocassional positive hit every now and again.

[madmax]

51. Ok, I confess

I quit smoking a year ago. Six months ago I was diagnosed with cancer. Not lung cancer. They don't know what kind of cancer because they can't find it. I've had 94 tests at DUKE here in NC. What they found is a small tumor in my pelvis near the hip bone. Since they can't find the primary and treat it I've been classified as Stage IV - V is dead. They give me three years. I can't win the lottery but, I've won the weird cancer drawing. Only about 6% of the population who get cancer, get this one.

As someone who has been poisned (chemo) microwaved (radiation) and God knows what else it bothers me to see people smoke. It hurts me - I wish I knew then what I know now. I would have taken better care of myself.

Chemo and radiation are a bitch. Being told your not going to get to do all those things you planned to do "someday". Someday left the station the day the dr. tells you you're on borrowed time. Always told my husband that the next one was gonna have it made!

So, folks do whatever rocks your boat. Some people smoke and never get cancer, others don't smoke and get cancer anyway. Maybe it's just a spin of the wheel.

Had a PET Scan last Friday. Still cancer free since end of chemo and rad - 6 months!! yeah! However, Aetna wrote me a 4 page letter saying they won't be paying for anymore scans since I'm stage IV. Gee, why don't they take all us stage IV cancer patients and put us in a room that has a sign above 'therapy', gas us and stick us in ovens. :mad:

[8 track mind]

17. Cold Turkey for me. 2 days of freaking out. After that i was just fine. n/t

[destes]

24. tobacco

Taterguy, allow me to presume you have only passing acquaintance with tobacco. Perhaps as a smoker, at least second hand. I beg your indulgence in any case. I have a message at large.

I am from Kentucky. Farming for a living there was only feasible by tobacco production up to about 20 years ago. No excuse, lots of people are born poor and ignorant, it's just the way it was. I have so many recollections of the tobacco growing processes from my early youth through my 30's. The lessons of life's labor was taught to me there. It is a lifestyle tradition peculiarly American, nearly romantic, captured in bucolic visions of summery fields, green leaves swaying in the humid breeze, of men proud in their labor. My memories, with my demise, will devolve into common folklore. This is as it should be and hopefully disinteresting because there are very few things as terrible that are wrought upon people as nicotine. It is good that there be no respect given this dying addiction. I speak as one who smoked/chewed for 35 years and is infinitely grateful that I no longer do.

I wish the price of a pack of cigarettes was $1000.00 in every state. As I curse my own retrospect.

[11 Bravo]

34. When I went to UNC the cigarette machines in the dorms cost 35 cents a pack.

I don't smoke any more, but I still feel your pain.

[joshcryer]

36. That's not too bad man.

[HughMoran]

57. I quit when they hit $1/pack

I was outraged! :)

[JVS]

70. I thought NC wanted them cheap to help the local industry

[taterguy]

72. The times they have a changed in NC

The lege just passed a smoking ban.

As of January 1, 2010 you won't be able to smoke in any bars or restaurants.

Good thing I'm a hermit.

[JVS]

73. I remember being in KY a few years ago and a fellow traveller saw signs for $20 cartons of marlboros

He was flipping out with joy!

[DesertFlower]

9. i just paid $2.79 for high test. it was $2.29

2 weeks ago.

[babylonsister]

11. What's this high test stuff? My '93 peeling Toyota

wouldn't know how to act!

[DesertFlower]

15. that's what they used to call it.

i should have said "premium". i have a 2005 mazda miata and the manufacturer says i have to use the expensive stuff. my husband's 2001 toyota takes the cheaper stuff and runs fine.

[nosmokes]

39. There's a Canuckian beer nicknamed *high test*

a few of those and this '60 peeling alabama doesn't know how to act either...:hi:

[Rockholm]

23. You and me both. Grr.

[Toucano]

58. "High Test" is a scam. n-t

[LeftyMom]

71. Not if your engine needs it.

My sister has an expensive luxury import with a high performance engine designed to run on high-octane gas. With even mid-grade her car knocks and just generally runs like shit. And I'm not talking about a barely perceptible difference either, the sort of thing where one convinces one's self they hear or feel a difference, it's a really, really obvious difference in the sound of the engine.

If your manual doesn't call for it, adding it won't show any benefit. But it's not a scam, it's just something that only some engines need to work properly.

Likewise, my car (which isn't at all special and doesn't need special gas) runs like crap if I buy the low-end gas in Nevada, because there low-grade is 85 octane rather than 87, which supposedly is acceptable due to the elevation and thinner air, but nobody told my car. If I forget and buy that instead of mid-grade while I'm there my check engine light comes on until I burn through that gas and my car and my car runs a bit rough.

[ejpoeta]

45. it's $2.65 here in wny. seems to go up a couple cents more every day.

[sabra]

6. it's gone up 50% here in Chicago over the last month...

[Fumesucker]

27. $6 / gm

[panader0]

28. I live close to Mexico

I go to Douglas/Agua Prieta once a month with my girlfriend for her smokes. (Salem Light 100's) They cost $75 bucks a carton here. At the duty free store, they are two cartons for $32. Really, $150 versus $32. You are allowed only one carton per person per month, but sometimes we go to Nogales and repeat.

[ohheckyeah]

30. The last time I was at the shop in Nogales cigs were

$10 a carton. Compared to the $28 in Tucson.

[madmax]

31. 75 bucks U.S. - 32 bucks Mexican

Cost of treatment and pain of cancer: Priceless

Maybe former smokers are harder on those who smoke than those who've never smoked. :shrug:

[panader0]

32. What's your vice?

[madmax]

35. Photography, painting

spending money on the house. I used to drink and smoke. Got tired of that crap. Don't you hate it when you can't remember the night before. And the dreaded question someone asks of you that was there. 'Do you know what you did last night?' NO! And don't tell me I don't want to know! :blush:

[Doremus]

40. 10 days smoke-free (yay for me).

I don't know how many times I've tried to quit over the last 35 years but I was finally able to do it with, of all things, an electronic cigarette.

[madmax]

41. You go, girl!!

It all down hill now. I wish you luck and success.

[Doremus]

53. I still want one every waking minute.

But now I can reach for my vaporizer and I'm good to go. :)

[nosmokes]

46. Congrats!

[Doremus]

54. Thanks!

:toast:

[ejpoeta]

47. ooh, they did a story on today show, was it, ?? hmm...

and said that the e-cigarette was bad. it would make smoking cool and get people smoking. the two people on to discuss it were obviously BOTH against them. they thought they were terrible, especially since they have no step down method like the patch and the gum. I figured it can't be that bad if it gets rid of that second hand smoke everyone is always complaining about. (i hate the smoke too, it's just the point.) i am glad you are ten days smoke free. and keep it up!!

[Doremus]

61. Not bad, good. Very, very good.

The concerns about young people taking up "vaping" are ill-placed, imo.

For one thing it's pretty expensive to get the equipment, upwards of $100 or more. Don't know how many kids can or want to cough up that kind of $$$ when they can buy a pack of cigs for 5 bucks. The argument that e-cigs are "cool" and analogs are "uncool" seems rather dubious also. Where is the study?

As for step-down, the cartridges come in high/med/low, same as patches.

I'll tell you what the REAL problem is: BigPharma isn't profiting and we can't have that in the United States of Corporations.

[ejpoeta]

68. that is so true. my feeling is, if it helps you quit... then go for it!

big pharma can kiss it.

[Toucano]

56. Quitters make me sick!

Except in this case.


Congratulations!

[seabeyond]

42. better not be the gas. was at 2.15. gonna drive from texas to cape cod. n/t

[zorahopkins]

49. $9.73

It just makes my blood BOIL!

[TransitJohn]

50. This Sunday will make 4 weeks for me

since I quit smoking after 20 years. I really enjoy a smoke, and was a half a pack to 3 quarters of a pack smoker. I quit because the prices went up, and the federal taxes went up this past spring. Now, I take that six dollars a day and put it in my credit union.

[Toucano]

55. Good for you! n-t

[LadyHawkAZ]

52. $42/carton here eom

[Mari333]

59. fucking SPECULATORS

OH, and its been 3 weeks since i smoked. i did it as a pact with my oldest son. he stopped too. we are doing the buddy system. (Im doing it for him.) as for the SCHIP bill, now I can tell them to take their tax and shove it where the sun doesnt shine. and I intend to suck the Social Security teat dry for even longer..take that, Federal Govt.

[Initech]

60. Oil speculators need to be fire-bombed out of existance.

:grr:

[iamthebandfanman]

62. hey, atleast its not illegal.

like the stuff i enjoy smoking.

you should be grateful. your product does absolutely nothing except addict you, and its legal.

[spanone]

63. $9.11

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

64. I have no sympathy

I live in NJ.

[TexasObserver]

65. It ought to be twice that. Smokers exhaust the health care system.

Tobacco companies should have to pay the health care costs associated with tobacco use, as a separate component of a health care system. They get a free ride now, as do many of their users.

It's a self inflicted wound, and should be dealt with as such.

[taterguy]

69. Lots of lifestyle choices have an impact on health

Should a bicycle cost twice as much if the owner doesn't wear a helmet?

[TexasObserver]

74. Requiring the product to bear its societal costs is reasonable.

This isn't guess work. We know that smoking causes all manner of cancer and other serious health problems. The costs of treating all those sick people should be borne by the product. The costs associated with such product should be allocated ratably among the users of the product, as they buy it. Hence, the doubling of the price.

As for your notion that a bicycle should cost twice as much if the owner doesn't wear a helmet, that is not logical. It's a weak attempt at justifying your bad habit. You're choosing to ingest something you KNOW is bad for you. There's not a safe way to use the product, as there is a bicycle.

The bicycle industry has no control over whether you wear a helmet. The bicycle isn't unsafe, but you are if you ride it without a helmet.

My suggestion is not a radical concept. It is the concept that has been used for decades in our civil litigation system to properly allocate costs to those who produce dangerous products. Tobacco is an inherently dangerous product. When you buy cigarettes, you should also be paying for the costs of tobacco on our health system. That way, when you are coughing your way to death, sucking down tens of thousands of dollars a week in health care, you will have paid your share of the costs for such by having paid a fair and reasonable price for the cigarettes you smoked.

Ten dollars a pack sounds more than fair. Someone has to pay for the damage smoking does. It should be the smokers, and they should pay those costs every time they buy a pack of smokes.

[sarcasmo]

66. self delete.

[krispos42]

67. $2.54

Come, come to Minnesota...

[Subdivisions]

75. ~$6 in N. Texas. n/t

[scheming daemons]

76. Not high enough....

I have no sympathy for you being upset that the cost of feeding your addiction is too high.

You have an option. Stop smoking and save money and live longer.


Or... you can keep killing yourself and pay through the nose for the privilege. I wish it was $100 a pack.