[merican]

Taxing cigarettes too much will definitely end up leading to a black market if we go too far, and profitable black markets always end up attracting and growing organized crime. It's too early to tell what these new taxes will do, but new state taxes have already caused huge price spikes in many states and this new 61 cents per pack and nearly $25 per pound tax on “roll your own” tobacco is no doubt going to encourage at least some new black market sales and we'll probably see more and more people growing their own. I don't really have a problem with taxing cigarettes, even at a higher rate than most products, but we can go too far and cause more harm than good.

[calex59]

Well, I guess I see things in a different light than you do. I think overtaxing any product that affects one group of users as unconstitutional but, hey, who cares about the constitution anymore huh? The problem is people like you who think over taxing tobacco, or any product you deem "bad",as being ok, "as long as it doesn't go to far!". We have long went past the too far stage when it comes to tobacco taxes and alcohol taxes for that matter.

Taxing cigarettes is fine, as long as it is at the sales tax rate of the state they are being sold in.

[Madame Dufarge]

I don't really have a problem with taxing cigarettes, even at a higher rate than most products,

And a lot of people who don't have a problem with taxing weed, even at a higher rate than most products, will jump on the "tax the potheads til they bleed" bandwagon just as the smoking Nazis have done to tobacco smokers.

Organizations like "The Partnership for a Marijuana-Free Universe" will pop up everywhere, providing jobs for the otherwise unemployable.

Government grants will fund thousands of "studies" on the effect of contact highs (second-hand smoke) on children and/or anyone within a 100-yard radius of marijuana smoke.

The demonization of pot smokers will be intensified a thousand-fold so that "advocates" can soften up the ground for confiscatory tax increases to fund their worthless, non-productive "jobs."

All one has to do is look at the template established for tobacco smokers to see where this would lead. After all, people who have no problem with taxing marijuana at a higher rate than other products couldn't care less - hey, they don't use the stuff.

[elkfersupper]

I don't really have a problem with taxing cigarettes, even at a higher rate than most products...

Why?

[Eric Blair 2084]

You really don’t get it do you?