Report: Sales of Untaxed Cigarettes Have Risen Due to Increased Taxes

Raising cigarette taxes has brought about a rise in illegal street sales of untaxed cigarettes in parts of New York City, a new study has found.

Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, who interviewed smokers in Central Harlem, said that raising taxes promoted smokers to buy bootleg cigarettes, instead of encouraging them to quit.

According to the study, which will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health, most smokers admitted that after an increase in cigarette taxes in New York City, they began buying cigarettes on street corners and outside subway stations from the "$5 man," a commonly used term for bootleggers. Smokers also purchased single, out-of-package cigarettes sold at bodegas, or traveled out-of-state to buy cigarettes.

"Bootleggers created an environment in which discounted cigarettes were easier to access than cessation services," the study's principal investigator, Donna Shelley said.