Some people are trying to find unusual ways of getting a shot of nicotine with the cost of cigarettes growing toward $4 per pack. Delegate Patti Eagloski Schoen, said she had lately received a letter from a citizen who wrote that he saw a local gas station selling single cigarettes over the counter. She also admitted she heard many other rumors regarding retailers who were selling single cigarettes without any original packaging.

People are getting closer and closer to despair; so they even buy cigarettes on the streets, and in paper or aluminum foil. "This is terrible and alarming," Schoen declared. "We encountered with a difficult situation with individuals selling single cigarettes that may be tainted. It's a practice we want to stop." Delegate Schoen proposed a regulation that would forbid selling tobacco products in any package other than the original manufacturer pack. It would as well forbid the sale of single cigarettes.

If someone is selling cigarettes individually or in any package other than original, they definitely do not charge the buyer cigarette taxes. The tax imposed on a pack of cigarettes in the State of Virginia is currently 54 cents. "These cigarettes aren't subject to tax," Schoen added. She criticized this situation naming it “an unfair market." In addition there is a safety problem with cigarettes being taken out from their original package and then sold in a different wrapper.

Schoen’s advocate, delegate Don Perdue said that the practice of repackaging cigarettes and distributing them separately is referred to as violation of at least 3 laws. Moreover, this practice is a breach of sanitary standards - “Once they're repackaged, you don't know what was done with those cigarettes in the meantime," he added. Schoen pointed out that this problem was becoming more widespread each day, due to the current price of cigarettes.

If Schoen’s law would be passed any person or retailer found guilty of cigarette repackaging and distribution would be fined $250 or receive a short prison term. The aforementioned bill is also aimed to counteract those individuals who sell cigarettes to minor smokers.