[njarboe]

Cigarettes cost about $0.10 a pack to manufacture so maybe $0.50 price for highly marketed brands. Price these days, with the added tax and sudo-tax lawsuit settlement, $5-$10 a pack. About 10x so 1000% tax or so. 20% seems mild especially considering normal sales tax in CA is around 10%.

I don't see a fundamental reason the cost of weed won't be around the price of tobacco in a fully legalized and big-ag growing environment. 5-10 years?

[GordonS]

I think the reason for high tobacco taxes is because of the harm smoking tobacco causes. At least in the UK, where the taxpayer foots the nation's medical bills, the escalating taxes seem designed to slowly but surely make smoking a thing of the past. It seems to be working.