Despite New York’s crusade against smoking, there are still bodegas that sell “loosies” as single cigarettes illegally sold for about 50 cents are commonly called and eight dollar packs. The owners make a profit ‘forgetting’ to charge the state tax a trick not lost on the NYPD, which has routinely cracked down on such operations, pushing these wonderful outposts into near extinction. As a result, I find myself frequently having to pay the exorbitant, legal $12.50 for a pack.

Which is why, for a couple reasons, I’m happy to hear about Lonnie “Loosie” Warner.

From the New York Times

By 8 30 a.m., amid the procession of sleepy eyed office workers and addicts from the nearby methadone clinic, Lonnie Loosie plants himself in the middle of the sidewalk on Eighth Avenue in Midtown. Addressing no one in particular, he calls out his one size fits all greeting “Newports, Newports, packs and loosies.”

Rarely does a minute go by without a customer stopping just long enough to pass a dollar bill to Lonnie Loosie, known to the police by his given name, Lonnie Warner, 50. They clench the two “loosies” as single cigarettes are called that he thrusts back in return.

So the loosie has moved to the streets! And its purveyors are thriving. According to the article, Lonnie Loosie is making enough money selling untaxed cigarettes that for the first time in his life, the 50 year old might be able to buy health insurance.

“The tax went up, and we started selling 10 times as much,” he told the Times, referring to recent tax hikes in tobacco sales, like the $1.60 increase back in July. “Bloomberg thinks he’s stopping people from smoking. He’s just turning them onto loosies.”

It’s a story with which we’re all familiar prohibit or tax a vice and watch it thrive on the black market.

Many New York smokers have resorted to getting their cigarettes online, or buying their smokes in bulk when they go out of state or on an international trip.

Loosies are a particularly decadent thrill for the smoker in New York. They’re illegal, they satisfy your craving, and at 50 cents a cigarette, you save about $2.50 for every 20 cigarettes you’d buy in a pack at a law abiding store.

Many buy loosies when they’re trying to quit and don’t want to commit to a pack. Others, like me, buy them when they’re broke.

When I want one, I dip into my change jar and go to the dodgier bodega in my neighborhood (which will remain unnamed) and wait in line behind people doing the same thing. I buy two or three Marlboros at a time. Usually they’re given to me in a small brown paper bag the same kind they wrap around cans of beer when you want to drink on the street.

If I’m buying a pack, someone has to retrieve it from a back room while I put down eight dollars on the counter, in exact change, so that there’s no mistake I’m here to buy illegal cigarettes and I’m not paying full price.

In case you haven’t figured it out I love smoking. I like the way it smells, I like the way it tastes after a meal or with a cocktail, I like the way it fends off boredom, I like it on a hot, sweaty summer day and I like it on a cold, crisp, winter night. Comedian Bill Hicks put it well when he said, “I like to think of my life as a highway flowing through the universe and I need the tar to fill the potholes in my soul.” In the end, the ritual and routine of smoking, not to mention the nicotine, puts me at ease and relaxes me.

That I’m doing something physically harmful to myself is a choice I’m comfortable with and feel, as an adult, a choice I shouldn’t be punished for. People have the right to get fat and drink too much, and I should have the right to smoke without being taxed out of next month’s rent.

And so, if the example put forth by Lonnie Loosie is a trend or becomes one, it’s an encouraging sign of resistance to a series of nanny state laws that attempts to infantilize a whole group of people whose only crime is the enjoyment of a legal drug.

These days, loosies offer the pleasure first of the sweet sweet flavor of the tobacco for make no mistake about it, I’m addicted and second the pleasure of a tiny, fiery act of civil disobedience.

Cdc – fact sheet – fast facts – smoking & tobacco use

Age you can buy cigarettes in usa
Diseases and DeathTobacco use leads to disease and disability.

  • Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases (including emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airway obstruction), and diabetes.1
  • For every person who dies from a smoking related disease, about 30 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.1
  • More than 16 million Americans suffer from a disease caused by smoking.1

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.

  • Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.2
  • Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including an estimated 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure.1 This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.1
  • On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.3
  • If smoking persists at the current rate among youth in this country, 5.6 million of today s Americans younger than 18 years of age are projected to die prematurely from a smoking related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.1

Costs and ExpendituresThe tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year on cigarette advertising and promotions.4

  • $8.4 billion total spent in 2011
  • Almost $23 million spent every day in 2011

Tobacco use costs the United States billions of dollars each year, including 1

  • More than $289 billion a year, including at least $133 billion in direct medical care for adults and more than $156 billion in lost productivity
  • $5.6 billion a year (2006 data) in lost productivity from exposure to secondhand smoke

State spending on tobacco prevention and control does not meet CDC recommended levels.1,5,6

  • Collectively, states have billions of dollars available to them from tobacco excise taxes and tobacco industry legal settlements for preventing and controlling tobacco use. States currently use a very small percentage of these funds for tobacco control programs.
  • In fiscal year 2014, states will collect $25.7 billion from tobacco taxes and legal settlements, but states will spend only 1.9% of the $25.7 billion on prevention and cessation programs.
  • No states currently fund tobacco control programs at CDC’s “recommended” level. Only two states (Alaska and North Dakota) fund tobacco control programs at the “minimum” level.
  • Investing less than 15% (i.e., $3.3 billion) of the $25.7 billion would fund every state tobacco control program at CDC recommended levels.

Cigarette Smoking in the United StatesPercentage of U.S. adults aged 18 years or older who were current cigarette smokers in 2012 7

  • 18.1% of all adults (42.1 million people) 20.1% of males, 14.5% of females
  • 21.8% of non Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives
  • 19.7% of non Hispanic Whites
  • 18.1% of non Hispanic Blacks
  • 12.5% of Hispanics
  • 10.7% of non Hispanic Asians (excluding Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders)
  • 26.1% of multiple race individuals

Notes

  • Current smokers are defined as persons who reported smoking at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and who, at the time of interview, reported smoking every day or some days.

Thousands of young people start smoking cigarettes every day1

  • Each day, more than 3,200 persons younger than 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette.
  • Each day, an estimated 2,100 youth and young adults who have been occasional smokers become daily cigarette smokers.

Many adult cigarette smokers want to quit smoking.

  • In 2011 1
    • 68.9% of adult smokers wanted to stop smoking
    • 42.7% had made a quit attempt in the past year

Notes

  • See CDC’s Smoking Cessation fact sheet for more information.
  • “Made a quit attempt” refers to smokers who reported that they stopped smoking for more than 1 day in the past 12 months because they were trying to quit smoking.

References

  1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking 50 Years of Progress A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 accessed 2014 Apr 24 .
  2. World Health Organization. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011. Geneva World Health Organization, 2011 accessed 2014 Apr 24 .
  3. Jha P, Ramasundarahettige C, Landsman V, Rostron B, Thun M, Anderson RN, McAfee T, Peto R. 21st Century Hazards of Smoking and Benefits of Cessation in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine 2013 368 341 50 accessed 2014 Apr 24 .
  4. Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report for 2011. PDF 325 KB Washington Federal Trade Commission, 2013 accessed 2014 Apr 24 .
  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs 2014. Atlanta U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 accessed 2014 Apr 24 .
  6. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Broken Promises to Our Children The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 15 Years Later. Washington Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 2013 accessed 2014 Apr 24 .
  7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults United States, 2005 2012. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2014 63(02) 29 34 accessed 2014 Apr 24 .

For Further Information

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Office on Smoking and Health
E mail tobaccoinfo
Phone 1 800 CDC INFO

Media Inquiries Contact CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health press line at 770 488 5493.