Smoking Cigarettes in Massachusetts Will Cost You Thousands

The real cost of smoking in Massachusetts is quite staggering.

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I've never been a fan of smoking. Now, I don't shun others or express my opinion about it to people who do smoke; I just never cared for it. It's not my thing. This probably stems from my childhood.

When I was growing up in northern Berkshire County, my dad smoked. I didn't like it, and I was a real pain in his you know what about his habit. Let me explain. In the early 1990s, I was a true-blue WWF Wrestling fan. At the time, my heroes were the larger-than-life superstars of Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Big Boss Man, Jake the Snake Roberts, Macho Man Randy Savage, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Demolition. It may seem silly now, but I was sold on everything the WWF was putting out at the time, both in storylines and merchandise. As I said, I was your prototypical WWF fan.

I mention my wrestling fandom because at the time, I was regularly renting wrestling videos at the local video store. Some of those videos had public service announcements at the beginning of the tapes before the matches started. Two of those announcements featured the Ultimate Warrior and the tag team, The Rockers, crushing a handful of cigarettes while shouting at the camera, "Be a survivor, don't smoke." You know what happened next. You're right. I would run over and grab my dad's new pack of cigarettes and reenact what I just saw on screen. He would chase me around the house trying to stop me from crushing his fresh pack of cigarettes that he just spent good money on.

New Study Reveals the Real Cost of Smoking in Massachusetts 

I mention all of this because WalletHub recently released a study revealing the real cost of smoking by state. Massachusetts ranks overall at #6. Here are some more details about what the study revealed for smoking costs in Massachusetts:

The Financial Cost of Smoking in Massachusetts (1=Highest, 25=Avg.):

• Overall rank for Massachusetts: 6th
• Out-of-Pocket Cost per Smoker – $219,701 (Rank: 6th)
• Financial-Opportunity Cost per Smoker – $3,848,459 (Rank: 6th)
• Health-Care Cost per Smoker – $395,805 (Rank: 2nd)
• Income Loss per Smoker – $875,586 (Rank: 3rd)
• Other Costs per Smoker – $21,072 (Rank: 48th)
• Total Cost Over Lifetime per Smoker: $5,360,623
• Total Cost per Year per Smoker: $111,680

Now that is a ton of money spent on smoking. You can find complete details on this study by going here.