In New York City, as of last month, it costs $7.50 to buy a pack of cigarettes. The intent was to curb smoking, not to make money, and it appears to be working. According to this NYT article the number of cigarettes sold in the city has been cut in half. People could be buying them elsewhere, but this is still a really good step.
Now if they would only give the tax money to cancer research and if only the rest of the country would start imposing the tax then maybe, maybe, we would be getting somewhere.