Raising tobacco taxes will expose people to danger

Published on November 5, 2009 2:59 PM

The re is an axiom saying that the primary reason for black market growth is a lack of access to a particular in a legal way. It is particularly so in case of people addicted to a product and having a strong need to satisfy their requirements. Outlawing alcohol consumption in the beginning of the 20th century and implementing to crack down drug distribution have always been inefficient. They just provoked the growth and blossoming of underground market.  

The April’s increase in federal cigarettes tax led to the runaway of criminal activity and prosperity of black market, overfull penitentiaries and billions in lost profits. Our authorities simply don’t want to understand that smoking is an addiction, and addicts should be treated like criminals or villains, but like ill people who need treatment. Until our government changes its attitude towards smokers, they will keep resorting to black market in order to get their smokes.

While cigarettes are still a legal product, legislators levy high taxes on smokers, implement bans, and simply stigmatize them, leaving smokers with only one available option – buy cheap cigarettes and smoke them at home in peace and quiet.

New York smokers nowadays have to pay more than $4 for each cigarette pack they purchase in the City. The NY non-smoking majority was indifferent to that issue, considering that it will help smokers give up. However, the great part of smokers still puffs, as those poor people are addicted and their disease is intensified by depression related to the necessity to find a safe place where to smoke without becoming the target of criticism from health freaks and their ubiquitous secondhand smoke.

I remember, like when I was 19, I used to buy bootleg smokes from smugglers, because they were a lot cheaper, and it was a real help for my monthly budget. So is the situation with other smokers.

According to the ATF report, nearly 800 investigations related to cigarette smuggling were completed in the last two years only across New York State. Smugglers use the difference in taxes among states and sell cheaper cigarette in the streets. As the local cigarette prices topped $9 per pack, the gangs have flooded the market with untaxed cigarettes.

But, despite all the difficulties, smokers keep lighting up, as tax hikes are not so efficient in reducing smoking rates. You don’t believe me? Well, take a look at the situation in Canada, were, according to reports, each third pack of cigarettes selling in Ontario Province, is counterfeit. In August, Toronto Police department raided a warehouse and seized more than two million smuggled cigarettes.

When Canadian lawmakers dramatically increased cigarette taxes several years ago, many conventional stores reported an immense sale drops, whereas Indian reservation saw a 50% growth in sales, as their cigarettes were tax-free.

So, if there would be no sufficient and wise policies, the smoking rates would not decrease. I suggest, the authorities should better educate teenagers about the hazards of smoking, instead of calculating potential revenues from new tax hikes, as it was proved that tobacco addiction often begins in adolescence.   

Subject concerning health risks linked with tobacco use should be passed to curriculum and studied like languages or math.
And, finally, in my opinion, if the public health officials will substitute boring two-hour anti-smoking lectures with showing children the pictures of smokers’ lungs and other consequences of smoking, I am quite confident half of those kids would never take on smoking.