Smokers around the country are freaking out as a huge federal cigarette tax increase goes into effect.

From USAToday;

"Oh my gosh," Bernardo Torres said Tuesday when a clerk at a CVS Pharmacy in Falls Church, Va., told him the new price, which went up in anticipation of the tax increase. Torres wanted to buy his aunt two cartons of cigarette-size cigars, but he walked away empty-handed after hearing the new price: $134. The tax on little cigars went from 4 cents to $1.01 a pack.

USAToday also included a chart that compares the cigarette taxes among all 50 states.

The top taxers? New York with $3.76 in taxes per pack, New Jersey with $3.58, and Massachusetts with $3.52.

Will you quit rather than pay the new tax?

Biggest U.S. tax hike on tobacco takes effect [USAToday]
(Photo:zzzack)