[larrytown]

...just like cigarette taxes were put in place to facilitate the local crime bosses running of unstamped cigarettes.

Cigarette and other 'sin' taxes are fleecing of addicts and those who can't/won't quit their particular vice. Cigarette taxes are especially wonderful since they are very physically addictive, and becoming more socially 'unacceptable'. They can tax the living h*ll out of those without negative consequence.

The government LOVES robbing addicts.

[T.B. Yoits]

Selling cigarette taxes as a "sin tax" is how they get approved by the public but it shifts the sale from businesses to street dealers.

FedEx and other companies have paid millions in fines for shipping cigarettes from Native American reservations to New York City which has the highest cigarette taxes in the country. Cigarette sales have been rising since 2014, including in New York City. (If the Wuhanic Plague is going to kill everyone anyway, might as well smoke 'em while you got 'em).

Arrests and fines for unstamped cigarettes are for those who aren't "protected" and paying off the authorities. Eric Garner's crime that he had had been arrested for multiple times? - dealing cigarettes in front of a legitimate business.