Garden City ? When the state’s tax on cigarettes rose by 46 cents per pack in July, smokers responded in various ways. A few quit, some just paid the extra cost, and many took up a new habit – rolling their own.

It happens every time the price of smoking rises, said Butch Callison, general manager of the Cigarette Outlet, a chain of six stores in Kansas and four in Oklahoma.

Even an increase of $1 or $1.50 per carton of cigarettes will prompt some smokers to take up making their own, Callison said.

But since July 1, when the increase in the state tax added $4.60 to the price of a 10-pack carton, Callison estimates the number of customers buying bagged tobacco and premade tubes has doubled or tripled. The tax applies only to packaged cigarettes, not to loose tobacco.

“All I know is we buy a lot more” of the supplies for homemade cigarettes, Callison said.

While the higher tax was expected to produce new revenue, state officials had also said last spring they would be pleased if it prompted smokers to quit.

And some have, said Pat Burch, manager of a Cigarette Outlet in Garden City, although fewer than she expected given that cartons now range from $22.88 for generic brands to $38.88 for premium cigarettes.

What she has seen instead are customers buying the equipment for making their own. About $26 worth of supplies – filter tubes, a cheap rolling machine and tobacco :quot; will produce 200 to 400 cigarettes depending on how tightly they’re packed, she said.