” If they did they would just declare tobacco illegal. “
Yeah - that worked so well with beverage alcohol in the 1920s, and with recreational drugs 1960s to present...
I live in a small sailboat and did some quick math...based on the price I’ve seen for cheaper SA cigarettes and the space available...a helluva long trip but a $5k investment would score $850,000.
Wow...I LOVE controlled substances!!
I'm not saying it would work.
I'm just saying if their intent was to stop tobacco related health issues they would do more than squeeze the maximum amount of taxes out of smokers.
Besides - when did the US government ever let past failures stop them from implementing a policy?
ie: Socialism has a long history of disasterous and utter failure but that hasn't stopped republicans and democrats in the government from forcing more and more socialism on us.