If smoking is down, how then, are they "filling state coffers?!"
Bull-oney. People are increasingly buying from the reservations or off the net.
So, assuming a linear function, then, a rate of 100% teens NOT smoking would require a tax increase of 143%. Assuming a current price of $4.00/pack, then 143% would mean a price of $9.72/pack.
Even the folks most responsible for stealing your money admits their programs are a failure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that more high school students are taking up smoking, despite stepped-up antismoking campaigns. Their figures show that the number of high school students who smoke rose by nearly a third over the last 6 years. The number of first-time teenage smokers has risen 73 percent in the 1990s, according to the CDC, topping 1 million a year.
Despite government-funded campaigns to stop cigarette smoking in Canada, the number of teenaged smokers rose to 28.3 percent in 1999 from 23.8 per cent six years ago. [The Toronto Star, Nov. 16, 1999]
After Finland, Sweden, Norway and Australia banned tobacco and cigarette advertising, teen smoking rates either increased or stayed the same -- as youngsters rebelled against what they saw as restrictions on their independence. "We're losing ground in the battle to protect our children," Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala said. "There is no excuse for delay. Congress must act promptly to enact comprehensive tobacco control legislation to protect our children."
They simply don't get enough of your money already ... they want MORE! Never mind their programs don't work and that higher taxes won't curb smoking, they just want more of your money. President Clinton outlined what they want... he said that states and the federal government need to raise funds to help pay for smoking-related medical fees, health research and anti-smoking campaigns. In other words, More government, more government, and more government."
Monday, July 28, 1997 By Peter Moon The Globe and Mail
The federal government's sustained attack against the smuggling of contraband cigarettes into Canada has created a new multimillion-dollar crime problem. Many smugglers are switching from international to interprovincial smuggling of cigarettes because the profits are high, the chances of getting caught are low, and even if they are caught the likelihood of going to prison is minimal.
"Interprovincial smuggling is costing millions and millions of dollars in lost taxes," Inspector John Ferguson, head of the RCMP's economic-crime unit in British Columbia, said in an interview. "It's a huge problem. People don't realize how serious it is."
He said British Columbia, where cigarette prices are among the highest in Canada, has been particularly hurt by the growth of interprovincial smuggling. Profits are so high it has attracted different organized-crime elements who are starting to fight among themselves for dominant positions in the trade.
"It's big business," he said. "And that's why they're in it, because it is such big business. When they get caught, they usually get fined and that's it. They rarely go to jail."
Groups as diverse as the Mafia, Russian mobsters, bikers, Chinese triads and other ethnically based organized gangs are starting to compete, with a serious potential for increased violence.
"The Iranians are going to be fighting with the Asians, who are going to be fighting with Russian organized crime and the bikers, or whoever," Insp. Ferguson said. "To a degree, they are already fighting amongst themselves here. Shootings and so on have taken place. It's just a question of time before it gets to a larger scale. . . .
"The thing has really scary connotations to it. There is an element of criminal activity in this that goes far beyond buying a cheap smoke on the corner."
British Columbia, because of its high tobacco taxes and large population, is a major market for smuggled cigarettes. Insp. Ferguson said it is hard to say what percentage of cigarettes reach the province through interprovincial smuggling compared to international smuggling, but added: "I sort of have the gut feeling that it is a 50-50 split."
Superintendent Yves Juteau, head of the RCMP's customs-and-excise branch in Ottawa, said the force is trying to help affected provinces. "It's very hard to define [the extent of the problem] right now," he said, "but, yes, there is an increased problem in interprovincial smuggling."
igarettes are smuggled interprovincially by road, through mail-order operators (who take orders by letter, 800 phone numbers and E-mail), by commercial couriers and in airline baggage. The smugglers have little fear of the law.
Smugglers, for example, regularly fly on commercial flights between Toronto and Vancouver, checking two dozen suitcases or more at a time, each packed with 50 cartons of cigarettes.
"They have people out here go out to the airport," Insp. Ferguson said, "and they pick them up [off the baggage carousel]. They know we can't have enough police there to catch them all. So they run up in a group of 20 or 30 people, grab the bags, and start running in all directions."
The surge in interprovincial smuggling of tobacco products has its origins in the crisis the federal government faced in 1994, when international cigarette smuggling from the United States into Canada reached crisis levels.
At the time, most of the smuggled cigarettes were entering Canada through Ontario and Quebec. Two out of three cigarettes smoked in Quebec had been smuggled into Canada and that one of three smoked in the rest of the country was contraband. The police were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem.
Ottawa cut federal taxes on cigarettes in February, 1994, to reduce the price advantage of smuggled cigarettes. Ontario and Quebec, the two most affected provinces, cut their provincial cigarette taxes. As a result, smuggled cigarettes are no longer readily available in Ontario and Quebec, which have the cheapest cigarettes in Canada, but they are commonplace in other provinces, where taxes have remained high.
"The Iranians are going to be fighting with the Asians, who are going to be fighting with Russian organized crime and the bikers, or whoever," Insp. Ferguson said. "To a degree, they are already fighting amongst themselves here. Shootings and so on have taken place. It's just a question of time before it gets to a larger scale.
The Canadian experience with simply doubling the price of cigarettes should serve as a bitter lesson to the idiots who want to create the same kind of atmosphere in the US, only on a much grander scale.
The lessons of Prohibition [of alcohol] have been lost on current do-gooders and assorted morons.
< /sarcasm>