Clearing The Air

Smoking ban activists like to claim that bans and higher cigarette taxes decrease tobacco sales, however the truth is that black markets fill the void

Here is just one story of the small percentage caught:

Police have four garages full of contraband tobacco in Nova Scotia that has been seized over the last two months. The cache of more than 4 million cigarettes is so big, police say they're running out of room to store it.

He admitted the smoke from millions of unused cigarettes might bring a tear to the eye of some nicotine-craving smokers.

"It's the same as when we burn marijuana," he said. "There's a lot of people out there who would like to see us not burn it."

Where is the outrage of protest from the secondhand smoke activitsts.......4 million cigarettes going up in flames at once should produce a considerable amount of secondhand smoke....oh that's right, their only concern is that the reduced tobacco consumption is supplanted by Nicoderm sales. (As Nicoderm maker Johnson & Johnson Co. / ALZA's political arm, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), funded the activists to the tune of $200 + million)

It confounds me that lawmakers have not waken up to this rent seeking scam known as smoking bans.....perhaps they have been complicit all along.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 11:50 AM