Not a chance. In your description, you describe smokers, then people who eat snack foods, then people who eat fast food, then people who are basically couch potatoes. Why  don't you mention the people who are charged  for using our  national parks for (gulp) HIKING?? Why not raise taxes on those **** HEALTHY PEOPLE????  Could it be that you don't EXERCISE??? Sorry, tax away. I used to smoke, and I'm so glad I quit. It must suck to be you. Maybe when cigarettes hit $10 or $15 A PACK you will give your lungs a break, too, along with not littering the highways, polluting the oceans and stinking up the doorways everywhere I go.

i hate to be outcasted and pushed around wile there are drug additcs that can't get any help and there problem is the taxes on smokes, that to me is a  big load of crap!! why dont they focus there attention on the drug policy and not so much on taxes of ciggs.Heidi P made a good point and i quote her  "This is America; people have the right to smoke if they want to and not be targets for it. What if alcohol had a 156 percent tax increase? Or hair products, or sports equipment? All things that people don't need but enjoy doing. You all should think about that." She is quite correct, What realy gets me sometimes how people look at me like i am some freek and just stare at me. i allmost hit a guy in the face because in a snobbish way he told me that i am endangering his health wile i was at bus stop, and i thought to my self "wow what is this world comming down to " as dennis leary said in his famous show "smoke em' if you got em "Mike Schmid

What awful things to say about smokers! It is NOT fare that the government wants to continue to bleed cigarette smokers dry. This is America; people have the right to smoke if they want to and not be targets for it. What if alcohol had a 156 percent tax increase? Or hair products, or sports equipment? All things that people don't need but enjoy doing. You all should think about that.

People that decide to kill themselves through smoking deserve to pay outrageous prices for it.

I have no problem with higher taxes for cigarettes. They are a significant health risk to non-smokers. Anyone near a smoker is paying a more significant tax - in terms of risking their health and potentially shortening their life; that's a far greater cost than money.

In general, I think it's appropriate to pay taxes - my issues are more about _how_ the tax money is spent. If the government was more efficient and effective with our tax money, there wouldn't be need to raise taxes.

I think high cigarette tax is a good thing.....maybe if the price is to high people will stop smoking them.....increase tax on cigaretttes and decrease price on treatments that help people quit smoking!