New Port Orchard tobacco business for DIY smokers

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) — With a pack of cigarettes costing more than $7, a business in Port Orchard is helping smokers roll their own.

At DIY Tobacco, customers by bulk tobacco and use a machine that churns out cigarettes.

The Kitsap Sun reports the cost for materials and the use of the machine is about $33 for 200 smokes — half to two-thirds the cost of commercial manufactured cigarettes.

The business pays taxes on loose tobacco, but customers don’t pay the same level of taxes they would for name brands.

A spokesman for the state’s Department of Revenue, Mike Gowyrlow, says it’s awaiting a federal court decision on whether such do-it-yourself businesses constitute manufacturing. That would increase the cost of the cigarettes.

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Information from: Kitsap Sun, http://www.kitsapsun.com/