My quick .02 on the tabacco/booze thing. Having some form of tabacco product or alcohol for barter may be a good idea in the short term. In 1992 my battalion at Ft. Bragg was deployed to the Homestead area of FL after Hurricane Andrew. As we were hurrying up and waiting to move out I went to the small PX across the street and bought two rolls of Copenhagen, even though I didn't smoke or dip. Three weeks later when the dip ran out and there was no resupply, I became the man for several days and people were very nice to me. I would assume the same could be said for alcohol in a similar situation.

However, comma, using these items in the longer term (more than a few days/weeks) as a barter item may back fire. By the end of the deployment to FL, everyone knew I had the extra Cope and I found the leadership skill of several higher ranked individuals became quite lacking when they ran out of their own stash, and I found my duffel bag gone through on several occasions when I was out on patrol. After a few days or weeks when word has gotten around that you have these items, the desperate and weak that can no longer control their addictions are gonna use whatever means they can to get to your stuff. When drug use goes up, so do local burglaries and robberies, because people do what they can for their "fix." This may also apply to other items you store specifically for barter, but these two things are the biggest addictions in society and would tend to cause the most problems when they are not available. Again, my opinion based on personal observation.