Not every New Jersey smoker plans to cough up an extra 50 cents per pack if Gov. James E. McGreevey's plan to raise the cigarette tax is approved.

"I'll go to Delaware, absolutely," said Terry King, of Audubon, as she put out a cigarette Thursday during a smoke break from work.

She wouldn't be alone. Federal officials say the illegal practice of going across state lines to buy cigarettes and bring them back costs states about $1.1 billion a year in tax revenue. . . . Jerry Bowerman, the chief of the diversion branch for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said his agency usually sees cigarette smuggling — sometimes called "buttlegging" — increase wherever the tax does.
—Geoff Mulvihill, "Taxes may rise, but that doesn't mean all smokers will pay," The Associated Press, March 29, 2002

Law enforcement officials are stepping up their drives against cigarette smuggling. According to the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, buttlegging is costing New York State $110 million in taxes because of the 44 million cartons of contraband cigarettes entering the state.
—"Buttlegging," Forbes, December 1, 1976