Rice and cigarettes. The first one I enjoy, but the second not so much. Well actually that’s not true; I enjoy both, but truly do want to stub my nicotine addiction. Rice has always been an integral food product in my life. Growing up, I ate bowls after bowls without ever thinking twice about how much rice was available. It wasn’t until a bit over a year ago my mother cautioned me to not eat so much rice. Apparently, rice now became a financial concern within my mother’s grocery budget. This shook me, but I ignored it. It wasn’t a problem doing so since my mother never brought it up again.

 

Looking back on that incident, I compared the price of rice through the years and noticed that there was a steep increase from a consistent average from (US Long Grain) 2007-2012 at 550/ pound to almost 610 a pound at 2013. This explains why my mother was concerned over the price of our rice. Since then, the price has remained in the 600’s averaging around 600.

Now for cigarettes (not proud of this, but). I remember the first time I bought a pack in my sophomore year at high school. It was under 5 bucks for a pack of reds. Since 2011, I’ve been a pack-a-day guy with a minimum wage job. But, if a person has asked me for a cigarette, I would give it to him. There was this universal smoker’s code of giving a cigarette in order to feel better about asking someone when I was in the same situation. I was at peace with this code within that time, but it wasn’t until the past year when I abandoned this karmatic practice. Why? Well, cigarettes have constantly been increasing in price and there came a point when my usual pack of cigarettes jumped 2 dollars within a year. That was it. I didn’t stop smoking but I did stop sharing my smokes with others.  Looking at a cigarette price index, it is evident that this change in price was due to a combination of increased spending on advertising for cigarettes as well as the actions of health organizations to minimize the use of cigarettes. Health organizations convinced government to raise taxes by 10% in order to reduce cigarette consumption.

 

I am not the only one guilty of breaking this code. Many of my smoking peers and strangers have been resilient in their effort to bum their cigarettes as they too have noticed the sharp increase in cigarettes. It is almost as if the new code is to never ask to bum a cigarette.