Why are cigarettes so expensive in New York City? They’re so high that it’s almost worth crossing state lines to buy the maximum allowance of cigarettes and bring them back.

Not only does New York State impose a tax of $4.35 on a pack of 20, the highest of any U.S. state, but when you add the local New York City tax of $1.60, you have the most expensive pack of smokes in the whole country.

According to The Awl s annual cigarette price check, for which they call delis in each state and ask how much a pack of cigarettes costs, New York clocks in with the most expensive, at more than $14 a pack.

In Kentucky, where the cigarette tax is just 60 cents, a pack costs $4.96, about a third of its cost in New York.

Here s a map of states color coded by how much they tax a pack of cigarettes, based on data released by the U.S. Federation of Tax Administrators earlier this year. Click on any state to see how much a pack costs according to The Awl s price check, and how much of that price is state taxes

Evanston becomes first illinois city to raise cigarette-buying age to 21 « cbs chicago

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(CBS) If you have to be 21 to buy a drink, do you need to be the same age to buy cigarettes? One community in Illinois thinks so.

Health experts are hoping Evanston won’t be the last.

CBS 2’s Derrick Blakley reports.

At this Evanston grocery store, signs warn you can’t buy tobacco under age 18. Starting Saturday, the age limit goes up to 21, when a new ordinance takes effect.

You’re going to have some customers that are going to be upset, but the law’s the law, says Kosta Douvikas of D and D Finer Foods.

Evanston becomes the first Illinois town to ban tobacco sales under age 21.

Cardiologist Tim Sanborn, a member of Evanston’s health advisory council, says 90 percent of smokers start before they’re 21.

If you can help help decrease the risk of those adolescents starting smoking, there’s a greater chance they won’t smoke when they’re adults, says Sanborn, who s on the staff at NorthShore Univerisity HealthSystem.

City officials know the law can’t totally block teen access to tobacco. But they believe making it more difficult to obtain is important.

If I m an Evanston young adult &#8230 now, instead of walking across the street to get a tobacco product from my retailer, now I have to go to my car and travel somewhere. That’s putting an obstacle in place, Evanston city health official Carl Caneva says.

Health experts are hoping other towns will follow Evanston s lead.

At least 40 municipalities across the nation have raised the age to buy tobacco to 21. Studies show about 10 percent of Chicago teens smoke. That’s the lowest level in history.