Ingenuity as well. Our nation was founded on avoiding obtrusive government interference in our economic lives (in reality a distinction without a difference). Americans delight in smuggling, tariff and tax avoidance and generally thumbing our noses at the pretensions of big government. Is any American foolish enough to believe that government cares for our personal health or is smoking a desperately needed cash cow?
I don’t smoke and find smoke annoying, yet like the Founders across 13 “states” with little to join them I recognize that if they come for Boston, they’ll come for me. Too many Americans are loathe to waste time on an issue that seems ephemeral to them and their lives.
The truth is that when government interferes in one sphere it is simple a precedent for further action elsewhere.
I don’t smoke either. But if you ply the powers that be with enough cash, they in turn can put the screws on whomever you want. It’s not law yet, Philip Morris has to spend some more money to make that happen.
Can’t argue with any of that. If they push the price of tobacco much higher it will become as profitable to smuggle in a bale of tobacco as it is to smuggle a bale of marijuana. Even the conservative factions in Latin American countries will be loathe to engage in yet another war on drugs against their tobacco farmers just to please Uncle Sam once again.