Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cigarettes bought unpackaged.

1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 150: loosies loose cigarettes bought singly over the counter.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z Lucy.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 117: She’s always loved the Benson’s box, even when she was smoking loosies and that.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 30: She was happy to [...] go to the store buy Sunny a loosie when her Newports ran out.
2007		W.D. Myers ‘law and order’ in What They Found 108: Yeah, fifty cents for a loose cigarette ain’t correct [...] You buying a Lucy they know you broke from jump street’.
2011		Word Dude at Twitter 5 Apr. 🌐 Loosie: single cigarette sold loose. Black market for them thriving in NYC to avoid luxury & other taxes.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 231: Stealing [...] cartons of cigarettes [...] then selling them as loosies.