Adelle Gregg worked twice as hard behind the register Thursdayat Brookhaven’s Tobacco Mart, selling double the normal amount ofcigarettes as a stream of customers rushed into the store to stockup before a state-mandated tax increase took effect atmidnight.

“People are asking when the tax goes up. I say, ‘Tomorrow,’ andthey say, ‘Give me another carton,'” she said Thursday.

Mississippi’s excise tax on cigarettes rose by 50 cents duringthe first second of Friday, raising the 24-year-old 18-cent perpack tax to a total of 68 cents.

The increase was overwhelmingly approved by the Legislature lastweek when both chambers voted to pass House Bill 364, anoften-amended piece of legislation that was introduced on the firstday of the 2009 regular session. The increase was signed into lawon Wednesday by Gov. Haley Barbour.

Lawmakers are planning to use revenues from the tax increase tohelp support the state’s ailing car tag credit program, fund asmoking cessation program and shore up the general fund. The taxhas been predicted to produce as much as $100 million during itsfirst full year of implementation, though the state’s budgetshortfalls have been predicted to reach as high as $800 million by2011.

One thing the new tax did for certain was pump up business atthe Tobacco Mart Thursday. Marlboro smokers were taking advantageof $35 cartons, which Gregg said would be more than $40 Fridaymorning.

Of course, the increase did not leave a smooth taste in themouths of smokers.

The majority of Tobacco Mart’s customers Thursday voiced theircomplaints about the tax’s unfairness, saying smokers were beingunfairly targeted when drinkers should have also been made to paymore for their habit.

“I’d like for them to go ahead and do alcohol if they’re gonnado this,” said Brookhaven’s Evette Daniels. “The reason they’re notis because all of the big wigs in Jackson use alcohol.”

McComb’s Tammy Conerly pointed out that smoking harms only thesmoker, not other people, as alcohol can.

“They need to go up on the DUI – that’s what kills people,” shesaid after purchasing a pack of Salems.

Conerly was also irked that lawmakers taxed only cigarettes anddid not increase the tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.

“If you’re going to tax one, tax all,” she said. “Either way itgoes, it’s still a habit.”

Hazlehurst’s Jason Rogers said he would support the tax increaseand gladly pay an extra $5 per carton when he buys his Winstons -if he believed the tax would actually help.

“If they could prove to me the money’s going to get used, showsome results, I’d agree to it,” he said. “It’s a money-makingthing. Somebody’s going to get rich.”

Some smokers who visited Tobacco Mart Thursday said the idea offunding smoking cessation programs with cigarette tax revenue ismisguided. Lincoln County’s Danny Thomas said making cigarettesmore expensive was not the answer to reducing the half-millionsmokers in Mississippi.

“I think they ought to abolish cigarettes or quit charging somuch for them – if they want us to quit smoking, they should makethem illegal,” he said.

Thomas pulled back his shirt to reveal a symmetrical bulge onhis left chest, tapping the fleshy plateau as he identified it as asurgically implanted pace maker and defibulator.

“They ought to be illegal,” he said. “I think it’s worse thanany drug in the world.”

Ruth’s Clyde Corkern is also dealing with the consequences ofsmoking. He claimed to have lung cancer and only three years tolive, yet still he stocked up on cigarettes Thursday. And still hedid not agree with the tax increase.

“They’re just taxing cigarettes and leaving everybody elsealone,” Corkern said. “If they want to get rid of unhealthynon-essentials, then tax Coca-Cola! We’re already treated liketrash in any place we go because we smoke.”