Staffbox | Do taxes influence your vices?

If you drink, do high liquor taxes discourage you from drinking? If you smoke, will high cigarette taxes do likewise?

Lia Pretorius: I can’t curb my drinking just because of high taxes. I have two kids in school. I’m drinking my way to Utah having the second-to-last per-pupil spending in the nation!

Christopher Westergard: Uh, that is a tough question. No, and no. I do those things because I am addicted. Duh. Price doesn’t matter. I need my nicotine, dammit!

Annie Quan: I don’t think higher taxes would deter me from drinking altogether. But those $100 bar tabs may not be so frequent. It’s more painful to still be sober and receive a $100 bar tab versus not to remember signing for one.

Paula Saltas: Ask John—I am a cheap drunk, so he’ll pay whatever taxes to see me even make it through one drink. Never smoked before.

Manda Bull: High taxes on booze? Oh, boy! I’ll just have to move on to tax-free illegal drugs!

Steven Wells: Higher alcohol tax might affect me if I go to my local “private club for members,” but if I stay at home, I don’t think the tax will discourage me from pickin’ up a 12er of Natty Lights on my way home.

Scott Renshaw: If you raise the taxes on drinkers and smokers, they will soon become despondent and begin drinking and smoking more. C’mon, Utah, it’s like a license to print money. tttt