That’s a Felony Folks

I was looking at a brief in Join Together, an on-line journal chronicling changes in drug policy, about raising the tax on cigarettes one dollar per pack. Ten dollars on a carton, in addition to the already high taxes in some markets means the illegal trade of cigarettes is about to blossom.

As a teen-ager I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio, a small town outside of Dayton on the verge of Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We were close enough to the borders of Kentucky and Indiana to take advantage of the discounted prices for alcohol and tobacco. We knew to buy a dozen cartons of cigarettes when we passed through – saving five or six dollars per carton, the cost in North Carolina – if you were going that far was even cheaper.

Indiana had great places to buy beer. Apparently, we weren’t the only one who took advantage of the border to get cheap beer – all the stores limited the amount cases you could buy. Luckily, there were plenty of stores to buy from before heading back across the border.

We bought beer and cigarettes for our own consumption and the savings we made were all part of funding the road trip. The people who chose to bring the legal products, beer and cigarettes back to Dayton and sell them (at cost or at a profit, it doesn’t matter) were criminals.

So what about the 9 billion dollars we can raise with that cigarette tax? Well, I still live near an Air Force base and I’m here to tell you, those service boys buy cigarettes on base at the commissary and sell then to friends without base privileges. That is a felony folks.

Diverting a legal drug into an illegal market is a crime.

As consumers, we have to be a reasoned voice that our lawmakers hear. I don’t smoke cigarettes but I know that when we place such a high premium on products, an underground marketplace is created. Underground economies, such as the illegal drug market, may fuel communities, but it also fuels violence. Illegal economies settle disputes with guns.

The tragedy of our good intentions is that when we increase the taxes, or worse yet prohibit the commodity, you create an uncontroled market. The economics of buying low and selling high is the American way. Trouble is that is a felony folks.