A Cigarette for 75 Cents, 2 for $1: The Brisk, Shady Sale of 'Loosies'

Itinerant cigarette vendors have long been a fixture in some parts of the city, like bodegas that sell individual cigarettes in violation of state law. But with cigarette prices up and the number of smoke-friendly places down, the black market for loosies is now thriving on the streets. The administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has outlawed smoking in restaurants, bars and playgrounds, and outside hospital entrances. Even city parks, beaches and pedestrian plazas are now off limits to smokers. Then there have been successive rounds of taxes -- the most recent one, a $1.60 rise in the state tax in July -- that raised the price of a pack of cigarettes to $12.50 at many Midtown newsstands. "The tax went up, and we started selling 10 times as much," Mr. Warner said. "Bloomberg thinks he's stopping people from smoking. He's just turning them onto loosies." Mr. Warner and his partners patrol the east side of Eighth Avenue, from 35th to 36th Street. . . . Mr. Warner said he bought his cigarettes -- almost always Newports -- for a bit over $50 a carton from smugglers who get them in states like Virginia . . . In his time, Mr. Warner has learned a lot about smokers' habits. He sometimes hears from customers who explain to him they are quitting as they buy two final loosies. "A lot of them believe they are quitting," he said, "but they come back every day."

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