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| | States hunt down online cigarette buyers |
 | | Michigan resident Julia Sidebottom inhaled sharply when she opened her mailbox earlier this year and was greeted with an unexpected and unwelcome bill from the state for $4,753.89 in unpaid cigarette and sales taxes. |
 | | Michigan is just one of the states looking to recoup revenue lost through sales of cigarettes on the Internet, where smokes often are cheaper precisely because the transactions almost never include cigarette and sales taxes owed to to the purchaser's state. |
 | | Cigarette taxes aside, at least 10 states (Alaska, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington) specifically outlaw online cigarette sales, and state law enforcement officials are cracking down on the virtual vendors. |
| www.stateline.org /live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=29157 (989 words) |
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