"...another dubious distinction..."

Sigh...yup, it's another feather in New Jersey's cap, all right. A laboratory for liberalism gone wrong; we are -

...the first state in the nation to experience a decline in cigarette tax revenues after increasing the cigarette tax. This fact illustrates it is possible to overtax an economic activity.

To support the Fiscal Year 2007 state budget, Gov. Corzine successfully proposed increasing the cigarette tax by 17.5 cents, from $2.40 to 2.575 per pack. It was the fourth tax increase in a six-year period and it made New Jersey's tax the highest state tax in the nation.
Here was the result: In FY 2006, the cigarette tax raised more than $787 million. In FY 2007 — after it was hiked by almost 7 percent — the tax raised only $764 million, or $23 million less than the previous year.

Sitting there smugly, are you - thinking that the Big Fat Liberal Government finally got people off of the coffin nails? Better guess again, Chumley:

While New Jersey's sales are plummeting, Delaware's are increasing. And it's certainly not the case that more Delaware residents are becoming smokers. Also, some smokers make purchases via the Internet. Others even buy in the black market, which owes its very existence to New Jersey's steep tax.

More evidence - as if liberals care about such non-progressive things such as, oh, "the truth":

In addition to the cigarette tax increase, the FY 2007 budget also was balanced with a hefty sales tax increase and an extension of that tax to goods and services previously untaxed. Sales tax proceeds substantially underperformed the Corzine administration's projections. Additionally, the income tax — the largest revenue producer — also failed to meet projections.

Man, it sucks being a lab rat in an experiment gone horribly, terribly, wrong...where is the political version of PETA to rescue us and set us free?