Is this the golden-unicorn legal loophole that will finally save tabacco-puffing Gothamites from the brutal $12 pack? The New Yorker this week highlights Island Smokes, a shop on the Lower East Side that thinks it has found a way to keep you swimming in sweet carcinogens for just $2.95 a pack/$29.95 a carton. Yup, you can’t even get smokes that cheap in practically lawless South Carolina.

The shop at 116 Eldridge requires patrons make the cigs themselves using on-site rolling machines and pipe tobacco, a process which takes a whopping 4 seconds. The New Yorker says the shop wants to expand to 10 locations by spring, but they may face resistance from the city’s legal team who surely don’t want to see that sweet tax revenue go away.

All that said, if you’re a smoker, you’ve obviously come to terms with your life decisions, and good for you! Since we’re a budget site, it behooves us to point out that NOT smoking is the easier way to save money in the short- and long-term. But if you’re drunk/stressed/listening to Cat Power and can’t help yourself, could you stand away from the door at least, especially as it seems like there might be a lot more of you now? K thanks, signed, My Lungs and Clothes.

Smokers, what do you think? Does this beat buying your own pack of rollies?

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