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To: Ursus arctos horribilis
"The supreme court ruled it is alright for wine drinkers to buy on the Internet and avoid state taxes. But, they deny that same right to smokers. Both are legal products, why the difference?"

They didn't do it so that state residents could avoid state taxes. They did it because some states, like New York, prohibited shipping from out of state wineries while allowing shipments from those in state. Funny thing is this lawsuit was brought about by a small Virginia winemaker who had been fighting this un-Constitutional impediment to interstate commerce. Meanwhile, Virginia has been up in arms about how to stem the growing tide of imports of garbage into its landfills from New York.

Nobody cares about how they treat tobacco taxes and shipments because very few farmers still continue to grow it in only a few states.

23 posted on 05/30/2005 12:41:56 PM PDT by lockjaw02 ("The tragedy of life is what dies within a man while he still lives" --Albert Schweitzer)
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To: lockjaw02
"They didn't do it so that state residents could avoid state taxes. They did it because some states, like New York, prohibited shipping from out of state wineries while allowing shipments from those in state. Funny thing is this lawsuit was brought about by a small Virginia winemaker who had been fighting this un-Constitutional impediment to interstate commerce. Meanwhile, Virginia has been up in arms about how to stem the growing tide of imports of garbage into its landfills from New York.

Nobody cares about how they treat tobacco taxes and shipments because very few farmers still continue to grow it in only a few states."

Anyway one slices it, Internet wine buyers can avoid state taxes.

Maybe only a few farmers grow tobacco, but millions use it. Tobacco and wine, two legal products, are not treated equally under the law.

To wink, wink, at minors buying alcohol on the Internet, then to raise the alarm they might do likewise with tobacco, is naught but a sham.

Frankly, I would rather take my chances with teenage second hand smoke, than a kid drunk on mind altering wine coming at me across the centerline at 100 MPH.
24 posted on 05/30/2005 3:43:45 PM PDT by Ursus arctos horribilis ("It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!" Emiliano Zapata 1879-1919)
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