Cigarrettes are sold everywhere and they are still a major “black market” problem. The only difference is cigarettes don’t ruin, or end lives, and aren’t as addicting as the dangerous drugs on the streets are.
Black Market Cigarrettes are still a problem. It is very simple. Criminals don’t obey the law. Is that really so hard to understand?
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/02/02/boston-black-market-cigarette-problem/mJpfuuFZXXYxrBiEgTcyJM/story.html
Really? No lung cancer or other diseases?
and aren’t as addicting as the dangerous drugs on the streets are.
Actually, the proportion of lifetime users who were at some point dependent is higher for tobacco (33%) than heroin (23%). Talk to a few smokers about how hard it is to quit - there's a whole line of business (patches, gum, etc.) devoted to helping people do it because they can't do it on their own.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/02/02/boston-black-market-cigarette-problem/mJpfuuFZXXYxrBiEgTcyJM/story.html
From your link:
"Following a 2009 increase, the federal cigarette tax stands at $1.01 per pack. States also got into the act; last July the Legislature raised the Massachusetts tax by a full dollar, to $3.51 per pack, the second highest after New York. Today about half of the $9.60 average price of a pack of premium cigarettes in Massachusetts goes to taxes. [...]
"Experts estimate that [...] $5 billion to $10 billion [of the black market cigarette business] is in the United States."
By contrast, "drug users in the United States spent approximately $100 billion annually" (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/03/07/how-much-do-americans-really-spend-drugs-each-year).
Cigarettes are ridiculously overtaxed - and even still the black market is 10 to 20 times smaller than that for illegal drugs.