January 26, 2004 - Sales of cigarettes in Oregon are plummeting because of high taxes.
Now smokers say a crackdown on Internet sales is forcing them to buy on the black market.
KATU's 2 On Your Side reporter Ed Teachout investigates if Oregon's efforts to get smokers to pay is having an opposite effect.
Dan Lindquist says he used to buy cigarettes for a little more than $10 a carton on the Internet.
The same cigarettes cost more than $30 a carton at Oregon stores. The difference is taxes; Oregon charges $1.19 a pack in taxes.
Lindquist is angry because, as of January 1 his online cigarette store refuses to sell to Oregonians.
On it's web site it says, "due to recent legislation we can no longer ship cigarettes to your state."
In essence, it means you can no longer buy a carton of cigarettes on the Internet without paying the tax.
"It's a band aid fix, where are they going to get the money after all the smokers quit," says Lindquist.
The tax crackdown may be in response to dwindling cigarette sales in Oregon.
In the six months before Oregon nearly doubled cigarette taxes, the state sold nearly $25 million worth.
In the last six months after taxes jumped to $1.28 a pack, sales dropped to nearly $22 million. That's a reduction of 10.4 percent.
Lindquist says if Oregon needs the money to fix statewide problems, other products should be taxed as well.
Taxes now make up 70-percent of the purchase price of a pack of cigarettes in Oregon.
Only three other states pay a higher percentage in cigarette taxes, one of those is Washington.