RICHMOND, Va.—
The customer dumps the loose tobacco, loads the paper tubes, punches a few buttons on a touch screen and the RYO Filling Station comes to life, cranking out the finished cigarettesIt’s easy to see why shops like Tobacco Direct have become popular in other states. The price for 200 cigarettes produced on the roll-your-own machine is about half the cost of a carton produced by a traditional manufacturer.
Higher state and local taxes, fire safe papers and the tobacco settlement all add to the cost of retail cigarettes.
David Sutton is Senior Manager of Media Affairs for Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA. "We think everyone who operates a cigarette manufacturing facility in Virginia should play by the same rules, be subject to the same regulations and pay the same taxes on the manufactured cigarette products that all of the industry pays," Sutton told News7.
State lawmakers are now considering legislation that would regulate tobacco shops with the roll-your-own machines as manufacturers.
"This is definitely a different process," said Greg Mitchell, an employee of Tobacco Direct, which recently opened a store on Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield County. "We’re talking about rolling you know 200 cigarettes in about eight minutes versus some of the bigger manufacturers doing thousands and thousands."
Mitchell has been working at Tobacco Direct for just a week and a half, and he’s wondering if he’ll have a job much longer.
Senate Bill 74 made it out of committee with unanimous support. A final vote in the State Senate is expected next week.
