Posted on 12/10/2001 5:14:25 AM PST by LarryLied
We all know how alcohol Prohibition turned out. And most folks recall a few years back when the Canadian province of Quebec attempted to raise cigarette taxes substantially above those charged in the neighboring American states of New York and Vermont -- whereupon actual gun battles erupted over the loads of smuggled American butts being barged across the normally unguarded St. Lawrence Seaway at night.So what did the residents of Washington state expect when they overwhelmingly approved Question 773 last month, tacking an additional 60 cents in taxes onto each pack of cigarettes?
For years, Washington state has been waging a losing battle with cigarette smugglers, estimating that nearly one of three cigarettes sold there is already untaxed contraband. But now, with its new $1.42-per-pack tax, Washington will become the most expensive state in the nation in which to be a taxpaying smoker. Said Mark Smith, a spokesman for the Brown & Williamson tobacco company: "All hell is going to break loose."
Yes, every time a Washington state smoker lights up an untaxed cigarette, he is committing a gross misdemeanor technically punishable by a $5,000 fine and a year in jail. But, "In reality, their chances of getting caught are next to zero, because the state seldom hassles smokers," reports the Seattle Times.
So far.
Now, with the Jan. 1 enforcement deadline looming, the Times reports Washingtonians are busier than ever, running in illegal coffin nails from neighboring Idaho (28 cents in taxes per pack) or Oregon (68 cents a pack in cigarette tax but no sales tax); or visiting one of the tax-free Native American smoke shops adjoining Puget Sound; or logging onto the Internet, where a growing number of online vendors sell cigarettes and other tobacco products.
As Carter Mitchell, who heads the tobacco-enforcement program for Washington's Liquor Control Board, told the Times last week, "You can't become the highest-taxed state in the nation and not be in for a helluva ride."
Profits on a smuggled semi trailer load of cigarettes from a lower-tax jurisdiction are already in the tens of thousands of dollars. When that starts to mount into the hundreds of thousands, make no mistake, gun battles will result.
Soon the familiar calls will echo for more enforcement agents, with powers to search and seize without warrants, to track private citizens' bank accounts ... and yes, eventually, even for "zero tolerance" jail terms for the lowly smoker caught with the unbranded butt.
The great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises explained more than half a century ago that such ill-conceived and unnecessary government interventions always bring about unintended consequences, which inevitably lead to calls for further and ever more massive new government campaigns and expenditures and "programs" and interventions, aimed at curing the unanticipated problems created by the first government intervention ... et cetera, ad infinitum.
In Victorian England, a popular pastime of the upper classes was to visit the asylums, there to be entertained by the bizarre and desperate behaviors of the inmates. Who knows -- maybe folks in Washington state have similarly too much time and money on their hands these days, and were merely looking to generate some new excitement on the nightly news.
They're likely to get it.
OK, I'm ready for it. Just allow me to settle my nerves a bit.
But are you sure we'll be safe visiting the Demoncratic National Headquarters?
It is not government's job to engineer society, but in a free society it is government?s job to protect rights.
Now instead of smokers killing themselves (maybe) we have another crime world growing that will make tobacco use effect and hurt us all. The drug warriors just never learn do they?
In NC for years (may still be true) it was against the law for minors to buy cigarettes but possession and use for minors was legal.
It's also worth noting that the government of Quebec (and Ontario as well, if I remember correctly) had to back down and reduce their taxes. Not because of the gun battles or anything of that sort, but because they were actually raising less revenue with the high taxes than they were with the lower taxes.
I'm on the phone making a down payment on an eighteen wheel semi. Anybody feel like picking up a few bucks on the side?
Know if the trial lawyers took an active roll in pushing it? They stand to benefit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.