The day after Iowa politicians gloated about a report showing a 36% drop in cigarette sales since the per-pack state tax was increased by $1, retailers on the Missouri side of the border told the Des Moines Register how their cigarette sales have soared during the same period. While there’s no way to track how many Iowans are buying their cigarettes in Missouri, the stories point to substantially increased over-the-border purchases.

“I hope the state of Iowa banishes alcohol next,” said one Missouri c-store operator. “I’d love to increase my liquor and beer sales.”

Iowa resident David Fuller, who teaches high school science in Missouri, was astounded to see Iowa public officials credit the 36% drop in cigarette sales as proof that people were quitting their smoking habit. “I stop at a c-store on the Missouri side almost every day, and they’re making a bundle selling cigarettes to Iowans.” Fuller added that he routinely sees cars with Iowa plates being loaded with “$300, $400, $500’s worth of cigarettes at a time.”

Iowa now has a cigarette tax of $1.36 making it among the highest in the nation and, while some Iowans have likely quit smoking as a result of the expense, there are many c-store owners in Iowa who say the sales have just moved a few miles south of the Iowa border -- where the Missouri tax is 17-cents a pack.

“We sell hundreds of cartons of cigarettes to people from Iowa, and we love it,” said Jo Hulet, Manager of Sharp’s BP convenience store in Bethany, Missouri. “Listen, I’m a big follower of rules. But…people are going to smoke. Period. And they’re going to stop at a place like this if they can save $10 or $12 or $15 a carton.”

Another worker at the Bethany station recalled a man from Minnesota who stopped recently and bought every carton of nonfilter cigarettes in the store. The Minnesota tax is $1.23 a pack as compared to Missouri’s 17-cents a pack. “The only time we’ve seen any tapering off is when the roads were bad,” said Hulet.

In the parking lot of an Eagleville, Missouri c-store, the reporter talked with two men as they placed dozens of cartons of Winstons into the trunk of a car with Iowa license plates. They confessed to driving down to Missouri about once a month to buy cigarettes for themselves and their friends. On this trip, they had pooled their money and spent $300 for 12 cartons of cigarettes which would have cost $500 a few miles north in Iowa. “Even spending $18 or $20 for gas, it’s a no-brainer,” said the Iowan. “We’re going to keep doing it, too.”

While it’s illegal to transport more than two packs of cigarettes into Iowa, there seems to be little interest in enforcing the law, concludes the Register, unless there is believed to be a bootlegging operation.

Herbert Muir, Sheriff of Decatur County, Iowa, just north of the Missouri border along Interstate 35, said, “We’ve heard stories about people going down there, buying cigarettes and coming back and selling them out of their cars. We haven’t been able to prove it. We have a limited number of officers, so it’s not practical to go out specifically looking for people bringing in cigarettes.”

Meanwhile, back in Iowa, Carolyn Hulett, Manager of the Kum & Go c-store on Interstate 35 just four miles from the Missouri border, showed the reporter a carton of cigarettes marked $40.30. “We have them, but we never sell a full carton anymore. Maybe a pack once in a while to hold somebody over until they can get down to Missouri,” she said. “But that’s it.”