Posted on 04/24/2009 6:17:38 AM PDT by TeknoBeck
Let’s face it, times are tough. With the federal excise-tax increase just going into effect on smokers (and some are bound to be unemployed), it is a cold slap in the face.
A friend I know who teaches in prison was talking to a teen inmate who said he was glad excise taxes on cigarettes were going so sky high. When he was questioned why, he replied, “It gives me one more thing I can sell on the street.”
Organized crime, street gangs and terrorists are not stupid. They know a good opportunity when the see it. Cigarette smuggling will explode, leading to even more of a misery index for the common citizen. The potential black market for reasonably priced cigarettes could greatly outpace the demand for drugs because there are so many more smokers than drug users.
One could almost guarantee this happening because in the 1980s Canada tried the same thing, with a unreasonably high excise-tax rate. Things got so bad that it was estimated that one of every two cigarettes sold was bought on the black market. Canada learned its lesson and cut the tax rate and the problem corrected itself.
With the inexpensive price of cigarettes in Mexico, the southern border could become even bloodier with tobacco smuggling in the mix. It is my opinion that the government has turned the gun on itself when it treats its own citizens this way, especially in tough times. If it doesn’t know that it is possible for criminals to offer a valuable public service when the government taxes like criminals, then maybe it needs to be taught.
The most undesirable among us can become too rich and too powerful to be dealt with if you give them something to work with and the opportunity. With excise taxes now sky high, even in the lowest tax rate states, they have been given the keys to a gold mine. Look at what Mexico is dealing with now with the drug cartels. We may have just handed them the keys to our future.
Dave Pickrell is president and founder of Smokers Fighting Discrimination Inc., a not-for-profit organization in Texas. SFD is 100 percent grassroots funded.
Here, tobacco went from $15 a lb to $63 a lb
I’m glad the prices shot up, finally got me to quit. So, thank you Obama, at least you were good for something.
I run a little country store and the wholesale prices on smokes and Bugler and other loose tobacco has gone thru the roof...yet, curiously the price on chew (’moist snuff’ as they call it in the biz, lol) has dropped to levels I haven’t seen in quite a while!
I don’t get it. My chew customers love it, but I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
(and just for the record...my cig sales have plummeted since the tax went into place.)
FUBO!
So I quit after 50 years of smoking. On my second week now without any real problems so far.
NOT going to pay those taxes for Liberal pet projects such as SCHIP.
Taxes should only be for maintenance of minimal Government as outlined in the Constitution, not for special idealogical pet projects of Partisan origin.
“I’m glad the prices shot up, finally got me to quit. So, thank you Obama, at least you were good for something.”
Ditto that! I did as well. I consider it an act of civil disobedience on my part!
: )
The only downside is that now I fear I’m getting addicted to the Commit nicotine lozenges...I love the ‘cappuchino’ flavor!!!
Part of the argument that marijuana is a gateway drug is that it brings people in contact with dealers that sell other drugs. This story points out that black market sales of cigarettes will bring people into contact with those same dealers making tobacco a gateway drug itself.
Keep it up! I have nearly 6 months behind me after 23 years of smoking. It has turned out to be easier than I expected.
I would think internet cigarette sales would boom.
Also, sales on Indian(native American)reservations would be up huge.
I remember living outside of Buffalo during the 1980’s people would run across Lake Erie and the Niagara River in speed boats smuggling cigarettes into Canada.
If there is a big enough differencein price, someone will figure a way to make a profit.
The tax has been so successful in bringing revenue, and modifying behaviour, except for the now crime part, that no doubt it will be the patter for gasoline taxes and small car push.
The always come after the smokers first, the Jews of vice users. And, as always, big government has its cheer leading right her on Semi-Free Republic.
Look forward to a 2-4 dollar a gallon Federal tax on gasoline. For the environment. For the children. For ethanol. For mass transit, urban renewal. For your own good.
I called my local state senator, to find out how to enroll in S Chip, alas, what a slap in the face, California does not have S Chip, we have the same program we always had Healthy Families,and it does not cover up to the age of 30 nor families making 85 grand a year. as was touted by the Save the kids group..Healthy families is a good tax payer plan, I had my kids enrolled in it 15 years ago.. but for zero to promote this extra tax on smokes was for a health plan for more kids, at least in California, it is not true.. = lie
I’d look for a boom in good old boys Virgina to stop growing pot, plant tobacco, age and cure it, chop it and start selling bags out of the back of trucks like you do see vegetable and shrimp. All cash!!!
Go Dixie!
Imagine Obama behind bars
In my neck of the woods, if you are a resident of Arkansas and you go into Mo. to buy smokes and you buy more than a carton (10 packs) and you get caught, it’s a felony. One extra pack would do it.
Imagine that conversation on the “group W” bench:
“Kid, whatcha in for?”
“Uhhh, I had a carton of Marlboros on the seat and an unopen pack in my shirt pocket....?”
Oops. I should clarify that: Ark. has imposed a very punitive STATE tax on smokes along with the Fed. tax, making smokes in Mo.-which has not increased their state tax (yet)- more affordable, relatively speaking.
Yes indeed, the gov. will use cigarette smuggling as an excuse to crack down harder on civil liberties. The ATF and other LEOs will be running roughshod over everybody.
Soon we’ll be seeing stories of children getting shot when LEOs break down doors to find illegal cigarettes.
I didn’t think of it as being disobedient, but you are totally right, thanks! lol!
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