Up in Smoke: Obama Destroys Jobs At 'Roll Your Own' Cigarettes Stores

Obama is the great regulator and job destroyer...

On Friday, President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law a federal highway bill with a section that redefines tobacco manufacturers to include any business with a roll-your-own cigarette machine and taxes those products at the same rate as packaged smokes.

The move comes a month after Illinois increased taxes on such roll-your-own machine-made cigarettes.

Marcia Smith, 47, of Lake County, decided after the state tax increase that she should move her Smokes & Such tobacco shops in Skokie and Gurnee to Wisconsin, where taxes on rolled cigarettes are lower.

If Obama signs the law, she said she’ll shut her doors.

Nanny State Alert: California county wants to ban smoking tobacco in apartments, but allow smoking weed

President Obama is most pleased.

MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- A Marin County smoking ban is on hold while lawmakers consider weeding out marijuana from the measure.

The ordinance as written would outlaw smoking in unincorporated county apartments and included marijuana and other herbs as well as tobacco. Read more here...

Ironic: Arizona Cuts Low-Income Health Insurance Coverage Because Not Enough People Are Smoking

Raising money by 'sin taxes" has been very popular in the last few years. The strategy can be self-defeating though.

(Reason)- Arizona has a major public health problem: Too few people are smoking.

That’s not the only fiscal problem the state faces. But it’s one of them. Like many states, Arizona’s public finances are in miserable shape. And much of the state’s budget trouble can be attributed to a decade-old decision to finance an expansion of low-income health insurance coverage with revenue dependent on tobacco industry profits.

A little more than a decade ago, the state grew its low-income health insurance rolls, claiming the new enrollees would be paid for by revenue from a deal with tobacco industry. Now, with smoking rates (and tobacco industry revenues) falling, a budget crisis brewing, and a growing number of individuals eligible for Medicaid, the state has chosen to pare back its health coverage for low-income adults.