[MrB]

economic laws of supply and demand have ALWAYS been in effect

Money is like water. It always finds a way to get where it needs to go, despite all the vain efforts of the authoritarians.

And, like you said, when it has to go through illegal channels, it helps to fund other illegal activity harmful to our society.

[kcpopps]

"When it comes to smuggling and counterfeit stamps, traditional organized crime is involved, terrorist groups are involved and street gangs are involved," said John Dugan, the ATF's area supervisor for industry operations

And you and your statist friends set up the conditions favorable for these elements to get involved, Mr Dugan.

So what should you do now? Drop the taxes or spend more public money to combat tobacco crimes?

When the government waylays consumers with excessive and unjustified taxation such as this - then it is they who are supporting organized crime and street gangs.

If they didn't know this was going to happen, then they're even bigger fools than I thought.