Posted by John on 10/14/2009, 12:45 pm
24.166.142.254
According to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes website, the fire safe cigarettes law was supposed to go in effect in Wisconsin on October 1, and I've been watching for them. I've noticed that during the summer, both Marlboro and Newport got the jump and switched to selling fire safes only prior to October 1, and had FSC clearly displayed under the barcode on the packs as I've read here was being done in other states where the law was already in effect.
Like I said I've been watching for them, and since I smoke Kool (and not that many people around here do that I know) when I've made purchases I've been looking for the FSC indicator under the barcodes on the packs (I'm assuming they're also on the cartons) and was both a little smugly and pleasantly pleased that I didn't find it yet on Kool. I thought maybe Kool was either dragging their feet a little before they started selling fire safes, or they had enough of a back stock of non-fire safes that they had to sell first. My plan (such that it was) all along regarding the switch to fire safes was to wait until they first hit Wisconsin, and then scarf up as many cartons of non-fire safes as I could find that were left so I would have the last and freshest batches before being forced to switch.
So the other day I was just relaxing at home having a cigarette, and for some reason was fiddling with my pack and took a good hard look at the tax stamp on the bottom of my pack. And that's when I saw it: FSC I9 stamped on the bottom of the pack itself, under the cellophane. Huh. I then looked at the carton I was currently on, and noticed FSC stamped on both small ends of the carton. I always thought I was fairly observant, and I had noticed that the cigarettes were burning a little differently, but have found throughout the years that sometimes Kools do that anyway so I really didn't think anything of it. But apparently I've been smoking fire safes for a while and haven't even realized it 
, which to me was quite a relief given the horror stories people have told here regarding taste. I'd like to think I'm somewhat of a common sewer 
of smoking, and to tell you the truth I never detected a noticeable difference in taste. I've read here that menthol smokers don't notice a difference in taste, and as much as I can figure maybe that's why. At least I can tolerate it. 
Today I made a run up to the Oneida Reservation near Green Bay and paid $157.05 for 3 cartons, which comes to $52.35 per carton. While that's still a helluva lot more than I'd like to be paying, given that on October 5 I broke down and bought a single carton here in Appleton and it was over $62.00 the price on the reservation today wasn't just too bad given all of the tax increases over the course of the past couple of months. 
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