I’m a freelance writer interested in the rising price of sin taxes? The basic angle is that smoking cigarettes is not that much cheaper than smoking pot in some municipalities.
I can give you a link for the US but not for the countries of the world.
This is a link to a map of the US with the state taxes of each state. It also says how much the federal taxes are on cigarettes. At the bottom, it lists the areas that also have a city tax (for example, NYC residents have a federal tax of $1.01, a state tax of $2.75 and a city tax of $1.50)
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0222.pdf
These taxes are only for pre-made cigarettes.
This is another great site that lists the tobacco taxes per state. It also includes taxes on loose roll your own tobacco. As you can see, the Federal tax increase last year was a 2,200% increase. The taxes on roll your own are now higher than the retail value of the products.
http://ryorevolution.com/ryo-tobacco-tax.html
There is currently a bill proposed in the House that would raise the taxes on pipe tobacco from $2.83 per pound up to $24.78 per pound (again, this would make the taxes higher than the retail value of most of the products).
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-4439
If you click on "Full Text" you can read the bill. It’s a short read.