Cut-rate cigarettes could choke the market and expose a whole new generation to the cancer-causing habit under a plan to throw out price controls on butts that has already won state Senate approval, fuming anti-smoking activists warn.

“It’s a dramatic and extreme reversal. I see no justification for overturning the law,” said Northeastern University’s Edward Sweda, a public health attorney.

Kevin O’Flaherty, director of advocacy for the Northeast Region’s Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, agreed, saying, “(The) amendment actually benefits the tobacco companies - not public health.”
A 1945 law designed as a perk for Big Tobacco set minimum prices for smokes by the pack and carton depending on brand, and production costs has actually discouraged smoking by keeping consumer costs high, activists say.

But as a pitch to hike tobacco taxes by $1 per pack burns through the Legislature, lawmakers have tacked on the amendment removing the price controls as relief for retailers.

The pricing law now dictates that a pack of Marlboros, for example, cannot be sold in the Bay State for less than $4.97 - or a store owner faces a $500 fine.

If minimum pricing is flicked away, prices could mirror New Hampshire, where the same pack sells for about $3.75, and no rules or fines apply.

The House and Senate must reach a compromise on the tax-hike bill and send it along to the governor for final approval.

If the new $1-a-pack tax becomes law, Massachusetts will have one of the highest state tobacco taxes in the country, at $2.51 a pack.

O’Flaherty said the overall smoking rate goes down about 4 percent - 7 percent among kids - every time the price of a pack of cigarettes is increased by 10 percent.

But Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield) who sponsored the amendment, said federal anti-trust and predatory pricing laws prevent retailers from selling cigarettes below cost.

Tisei said he doesn’t envision cigarettes being sold at bargain-basement prices if the proposed tax hike kicks in. He thinks the prices could drop slightly.

“You are going to see the price come down to the point that it washes out,” he said.

Tisei said he proposed the amendment to rid the state of “corporate welfare” to Big Tobacco brought on by setting the price per pack artificially high.

As for smokers, most told the Herald they are fed up with being vilified and taxed.

“You can’t legislate morality,” said James McLean of Cambridge.

“I don’t care what they do. I just bum them,” said Mick Emerson of Randolph.