Quote Originally Posted by Jaybar View Post
I'm not sure what you are concerned about - the demonizing or the taxing. For Chicago alcohol is taxed as well as cigarettes.

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$0.29 per gallon of beer
$0.36 per gallon of liquor containing 14% or less alcohol by volume
$0.89 per gallon for liquor containing more than 14% and less than 20% of alcohol by volume
$2.68 per gallon containing 20% or more alcohol by volume
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$0.034 per cigarette or $0.68 per package of twenty cigarettes
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But as far as demonizing? Yea alcohol is practically cherished while smoking is looked down upon. One needs only look at the smoking ban in restaurants. That's not to say excessive alcohol consumption isn't being culled - it's just much harder.
Maybe its just that around here, it seems that every year a cigarette tax is proposed in order to make up a budget shortfall, while being "for the children" at the same time. You don't get that same kind of news coverage whenever there is an increase in the price of alchohol.