Some 124,000 U.S. farms harvested about 1,646 million pounds of tobacco on about 795,000 acres in 1997. Other types of tobacco are used for cigars, chewing, and snuff. American blend cigarettes are a combination of flue-cured, burley, and oriental tobaccos. Consequently, tobacco imports dropped substantially below recent levels. However, spending for tobacco products has increased as a result of price and tax increases.
Tobacco products are subject to federal excise taxes.
In addition, all states and some local governments impose excise taxes. Nationally, in 1997, cigarette excise taxes averaged about 58 cents a pack, with 24 cents being federal. Cyclical swings in tobacco prices, and the associated farm income crises, led to grower efforts to voluntarily control production in the early part of this century. In some cases, violence was used against uncooperative growers. But the nongovernmental efforts failed.