Please Help - Need Food (but not cigarettes)

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Now, if you're moving more than a certain number of cigarettes and you get caught, it's a federal felony (I think it's 6000 packs, or 600 cartons). Chicago has a reward for people who turn in others who are selling bootleg cigarettes.

For about a year I ordered cigs out of Switzerland, and saved a lot of money. Then the state of WI and other states "persuaded" one of the online retailers to give up their customer list. The state sent out letters to people on the list informing them of the unpaid taxes they owed on the cigarettes they'd bought. I was sweating that, because it would have cost me over $6000 in taxes if I'd been on that list.

Lil teeny gas station here was selling a million a month in cigs. Well actually moving them would be more accurate. Moving em to nyc


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[Triphammer]

Back in the mid 70's I travelled between NY & NJ once or twice a month. I'd get stopped by NJ highway patrol about every third trip looking for bootleg smokes. Seems there was quite a trade going from points south to NY. More recently I traveled to Mexico to purchase smokes (until Wifey quit) One carton duty free and taxes went from $2 a carton. Then they went to $10.

 BTW, all (most) of the bagged tobacco that's shredded & works really well in cigarette stuffers is marked as "pipe" tobacco.

Personally, I quit smoking when a pack went from 35 cents a pack to  50. I started dipping about 38 years ago and try as I might I couldn't quit until last year. THAT was tough! It was one year May 15 2013.

[Devonai]

At least your annual dental cleanings are 31 times faster now.

[Scout26]

Yep, when I worked at the Midway Airport Station for Airborne Express the drivers that did deliveries and pickup in NW Indiana would take orders (and cash) for cigarettes because they were much cheaper to buy in Indiana then Illinois.  

But then everyone who lived close to the border went to Indiana to buy gas and smokes because it was soooo much cheaper then paying Illinois prices.

I always get gas at the Pilot in Gary, IN when I go to visit my folks in Indy.  It's normally 40-60 cents a gallon cheaper then around where I live.

[Sergeant Bob]

I always get gas at the Pilot in Gary, IN when I go to visit my folks in Indy.  It's normally 40-60 a gallon cheaper then around where I live.

Do you see any of the native "wildlife" (Lot Lizards, AKA Recreational Reptiles) when you stop in there? Although there were a lot more at the TA across the street.

[HankB]

I love these stories about cross-state "smuggling." 

When I lived up in PROM (People's Republic of Minnesota) fireworks were illegal . . . which meant that fireworks stands just across the St. Croix river in Hudson, WI, did a booming business in the weeks before the 4th of July.

Well, PROM didn't like that, so one day a PROM State Trooper crossed the border and parked in the lot of one of the larger fireworks stores, looking for cars with PROM plates. Asked politely, they refused to leave . . . whereupon all the employees of said store took their cars and blocked in the PROM State Trooper. Much hilarity ensued. Local WI constabulary eventually appeared on the scene and informed said PROM troopers that they weren't tasked with LEO duties in WI, and since they weren't in hot pursuit, they had best leave . . . and were escorted back across the river as a professional courtesy so they wouldn't get lost. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Va did, likely still does, that with Dixie liquor just across the bridge Georgetown. They call in tags to cops on other side of bridge.

damn phone

[MechAg94]

Back in the mid 70's I travelled between NY & NJ once or twice a month. I'd get stopped by NJ highway patrol about every third trip looking for bootleg smokes. Seems there was quite a trade going from points south to NY. More recently I traveled to Mexico to purchase smokes (until Wifey quit) One carton duty free and taxes went from $2 a carton. Then they went to $10.

 BTW, all (most) of the bagged tobacco that's shredded & works really well in cigarette stuffers is marked as "pipe" tobacco.

Personally, I quit smoking when a pack went from 35 cents a pack to  50. I started dipping about 38 years ago and try as I might I couldn't quit until last year. THAT was tough! It was one year May 15 2013.

A friend of mine finally quit dipping 10 years or so ago.  He still chews the nicotine gum, but won't give him a hard time on that.  It ain't near as bad.  He went through cycles of quitting and restarting for 2 or 3 years before finally quitting the last time. 

[cordex]

We talked it over while drinking, but we were too much honest citizens to do it. Probably the closest I came to criminal enterprise here in the US.

Those four words say so much.

I think we're going to see a lot more people growing their own tobacco in small batches.

[AZRedhawk44]

I think we're going to see a lot more people growing their own tobacco in small batches.

http://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/tobacco

And it's pretty, too!

[Devonai]

I live 150 feet from a large, active tobacco field here in CT.  Maybe I should start some midnight runs?  

[Scout26]

Do you see any of the native "wildlife" (Lot Lizards, AKA Recreational Reptiles) when you stop in there? Although there were a lot more at the TA across the street.

No, just the occasional Gary cop or their rent-a-cop (armed).  I stay on the automobile side.  The trucks (and the local fauna) would be around back with the trucks.

The reason I stop at Pilot, is that in addition to saving $.40-.60 per gallon, I also get an additional $.02 off because I have their RV card. 

[Sergeant Bob]

No, just the occasional Gary cop or their rent-a-cop (armed).  I stay on the automobile side.  The trucks (and the local fauna) would be around back with the trucks.

The reason I stop at Pilot, is that in addition to saving $.40-.60 per gallon, I also get an additional $.02 off because I have their RV card. 

As much as I disliked fueling there, the Pilot actually did a pretty good job of keeping the hookers out.

[CyrusStrakers]

As I pulled into the grocery store parking lot yesterday afternoon, I saw a 'homeless" couple sitting under a tree in a parking lot median holding up "need food -- anything helps" signs. Both of them were smoking e cigarettes. Both when I went into the store and when I left, so they obviously had a supply.

Question 1: How much food does a couple of packs of cigarettes buy if you are, in fact, homeless?
Question 2: How stupid are the people who give these two, probably not homeless people, money?

Well you have vital points.. Some guys do have spare money for such useless activities which can easily be used for others help.

[Hawkmoon]

I live 150 feet from a large, active tobacco field here in CT.  Maybe I should start some midnight runs?  

I have always heard that Connecticut shade-grown, broad leaf tobacco is suitable for use as cigar wrappers, not as filling.

[zxcvbob]

I bought about 5 pounds of leaf tobacco from Pennsylvania (Amish) a few years ago to try my hand at rolling cigars.  It's harder to do than you might think.  I have a weakness for dying artforms like that.  I think I paid a couple of dollars per pound.

I need to find that package and make sure moths haven't eaten it up.  I still have most of it, and it should be aged nicely by now.