Editor,
Boy, your new editorial board must be seriously jonesing with that added 70 cents per pack and all. I bet they've thought seriously about the tradeoffs between the costs of driving to Sandia or Isleta Pueblos and the cost of a carton up the street at Smith's.
But I bet they haven't seriously put any thought as to why our governor and legislature passed the cigarette excise tax beyond how "why-always-me" unfair the tax is to New Mexico's downtrodden cigarette addicts. To begin with, regardless for how much you mine journalistic possibilities for the pot of gold, it is highly unlikely you will ever be able to save up what your dragged-out, painful, drug-dependant death will cost society, monetarily, because we all know how priceless Lowblow editors are intrinsically. Fortunately, much of your hard-earned drug money will go toward capital improvements to the N.M. Department of Health and the UNM Cancer Treatment Center. Somewhere in the mix, you get to offset some of your own future costs to society. Now that product placement laws make it difficult to five-finger discount cigs (although the tobacco companies were more than happy to pay a restocking fee to cover merchant costs,) another way to offset future cancer deaths is to create an economic obstacle to prevent some new addicts from falling into the cycle. Plainly, the more cigarettes cost the fewer children start smoking (for the most part, adults don't start smoking). The idea is to keep cigarettes out of the mouths of babes long enough for them to grow out of that particular suicidal tendency.
So, next time you pick up a pack at Smith's (while the rest of us have to wait for the bagger to get you your cancer sticks) smile. You're doing your part to pay for your own chemotherapy and keep your drug of choice from being the drug of choice for the next generation of New Mexicans.
Danny Hernandez
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