From: The Washington Post/GovBeat
If you’re a New Yorker smoking right now, odds are that cigarette in your mouth is contraband.
Of all the cigarettes consumed in the state, an estimated 58 percent were smuggled in, according to a new report from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan research and educational institute. A total of 30 states are estimated to be net importers of cigarettes.
Smuggling accounts for more than a third of all cigarettes consumed in four states, according to the estimates for 2013: New York (58 percent), Arizona (49.3 percent), Washington (46.4 percent) and New Mexico (46.1 percent). The biggest exporters of cigarettes are New Hampshire (28.7 percent), Idaho (24.2 percent), Delaware and Virginia (22.6 percent) and Wyoming (21 percent).
