The Kitty Litter in Your Cigarette Allows Tobacco Companies to Avoid $1.1 Billion in Taxes

[onehandle]

WHAT NOW? Apparently there is cat litter in cigarettes—or rather the clay found in cat litter is used in cigarettes as filler. This allows tobacco companies to "weigh down" their cigarettes so that they will fall into the "large cigar" category-helping the companies avoid a federal excise tax increase of 2,653%. The rule goes as follows:

It requires "a rolled tobacco product to weigh at least 3 pounds per 1,000 to be labeled as a 'large' or 'premium' cigar where taxes increased just 155 percent."

This filler is legal; though the rule states that weight must be achieved to qualify as a large cigar, there is no stipulation about how this weight is achieved.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say this tax disparity has been the cause of an increase in large cigar smoking. Smoking of large cigars has tripled in the past decade, while cigarette smoking has declined.

http://gawker.com/5987846/the-kitty-litter-in-your-cigarette-allows-tobacco-companies-to-avoid-11-billion-in-taxes

[TexasProgresive]

1. A bit misleading

I don't think cigarettes fall into the "a rolled tobacco product" Cigars are rolled leaves of tobacco, cigarettes are not, being made of cut tobacco.

[onehandle]

2. It's probably the toilet cleaner, or battery acid, or the insecticide in cigarettes that does it.

http://www.tricountycessation.org/tobaccofacts/Cigarette-Ingredients.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Sharp eye there....

altho I don't use tobacco/nicotine, I do appreciate critical thinking when I hear it.

[TexasProgresive]

6. Thanks, I was trained well,

by many wonderful women in my life-family, nuns, wife, co-workers-

You and several other DU grrrrls are in that club.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. awww.....shucky dern...*shuffles feet*

[Zax2me]

4. 1.1b?! Chicken scratch - The tobacco companies are a tax/lawsuit cash cow for our govt.

They are paying so much in taxes to the govt that the govt makes certain they stay in business and people continue to smoke.
They cannot afford to lose one of their best financial resources.
The two currently have in place a 206 BILLION dollar exchange (tobacco money flowing to the govt) over a 25-year agreement which began in 1998.
This is a minimal agreement.
There are loopholes in the GOVERNMENTS favors which allow them to go after more during this same time period.

So, this little 1.1 billion 'loophole' is a joke. And it is the govt that is doing the laughing.
They are winning this battle and would only be upset if the tobacco companies failed, people smoked less, and the billions stopped flowing into revenue coffers.

[Historic NY]

5. "No wonder they taste & smell like sh-t".