60 percent of New York State's cigarettes are smuggled

Last week a startling number ricocheted around the web, from CNN to the New York Times Economix blog: More than 60 percent of cigarettes smoked in New York State, which has the highest tobacco taxes in the nation, are “smuggled” in from out of state and consumed tax free. The smuggling number originates with an an anti-tax-leaning think tank in Michigan, the Mackinac Center. If that number is right, it would give pause to advocates of cigarette taxes.
http://go.bloomberg.com/market-now/2013/01/15/smuggling-facts-into-the-tax-wars/