According to The New York Times, that city’s mayor Bill deBlasio has backed a proposal to raise the minimum price of a pack of cigarettes in the Big Apple to $13.00 (current minimum being $10.50). The goal is to persuade 160,000 of the estimated 900,000 city residents who still smoke to stop by 2020.
RePlay’s publisher Eddie Adlum remembers when he could buy a pack from a vending machine for 35 cents.
“Before that, when I was in the service, I could buy a whole carton of smokes from the Army PX for $1.80,” he said. If the mayor gets what he wants, a two-pack-a-day smoker would end up paying $9,490.00 a year if he bought them by the pack.