New York City sued the city's first "roll-your-own"
cigarette business on Monday in its latest attempt to reduce smoking rates and retain revenue from the highest combined city and state tobacco tax in the nation.
City attorneys said that Island Smokes, which has storefronts in Manhattan and Staten Island with plans to expand to all five boroughs, was manufacturing cigarettes without paying city taxes.
Patrons of the business make their own smokes one by one, paying a fraction of the price of store-bought city cigarettes. The loose tobacco used at the shops is taxed at significantly lower rates than manufactured tobacco.
Customers of Island Smokes sit on bar stools and use individual machines that squirt the tobacco into a hollow paper-and-filter ensemble.
