how can they watch a person’s purchases without a warrent?
What’s the difference between buying smokes across the state line and buying anything else? I live in the southmost part of Chicago. When I used to smoke cigarettes, I always bought them in Indiana. The same for gasoline. The same for a lot of things, and do you know why? Not only is the tax on everything a lot less in Indiana — but the disparity between Indiana’s tax and Illinois’ tax has destroyed a lot of retail business in my part of Chicago. There isn’t a gasoline station within miles of my house in Illinois. There isn’t a regular convenience store that doesn’t also have a liquor department or an ethnic meat counter. But cross the line into Indiana, and it’s a whole different retail world — gas stations, smoke shops, grocery stores.
Our fine public servants would do better if they spent more time considering how their own insane and burdensome tax policies have damaged not only people lives, but also the economies of their jurisdiction, and spend less time finding out ways to threaten free consumers or turn them into criminals.
I saw a sign like that in North Carolina a couple years back, driving home from vacation. We stopped at a tobacco outlet where cartons and rolls of chewing tobacco were half the price as here in PA. We bought cartons and rolls for us and for our friends back home, but stopped at an ATM to get money out instead of using our debit card.