Results tagged “cigarettes”

Depressed, laid off, drunk and want a cigarette? Unless you can bum one off a friendly big spender, you'll pay dearly for it, thanks to a state sin tax increase that went into effect today. In Washington, each pack of smokes now carries a $3.035 tax. Perhaps it's time to pick a different, cheaper vice, such as womanizing or watching reality television.

No one noticed, but last week the King County health department raised the stakes in the city's war on smoking by suing two bars for failing to comply with the nah-they'll-never-enforce-it rule that prohibits smoking within twenty-five feet of the doors, windows, and vents of bars and restaurants. You may have noticed that the twenty-five-foot rule generally isn't enforced, and smokers seem to wander as far afield as twenty-five inches from the door of most bars before lighting up. Check outside Neumos between sets, the Tractor on weekends and most neighborhood bars any time at all where it's not unusual to see patrons straddling the threshold of a back door; Manny's just inside the bar, American Spirit just out.

Ahem. Here it is, your long-awaited update to this morning's news about Chateau Ste. Michelle joining the Marlboro pack.