MD: Smokers are funding terrorism
Steve warns us that…
…taking more than two packs of cigarettes into Maryland is a felony, and that you aren’t even allowed to pass through the state with more than one carton. At issue is the profit margins. A carton of cigarettes in Virginia costs just $22. In Maryland it goes for $40. Drive a little further up the road to New York City, and that carton is worth $75. The profit on a carload of cigarettes going to New York City runs into the thousands of dollars.
In fact, the profit is so high that drug dealers are giving up their trade to smuggle cigarettes. And rather than going to state taxes, much of that money funds organized crime and even terrorism.
Of course, cigarette smuggling and New York are hardly strangers. For years, smugglers have fought gunbattles in Cornwall, Ontario for the right to smuggle cigarettes across the St. Lawrence River. I suppose this sort of madness is inevitable when so many governmental entities are trying to control or curtail cigarette consumption in so many different ways. While I am all for government enacting economic disincentives to discourage smoking, the current system only means that governments are working at cross-purposes. If state and local governments could come up with a unified, coherent plan, they might stand a chance at success.
As is usually the case in any sort of debate, Steve’s take on this subject is somewhat different than my own, but he does make some good points.
But they shouldn’t blame Virginia. States like Maryland who charge $1 a pack, and cities like New York who charge $3 a pack should have seen this coming. NYC Mayor Bloomberg, a Republican, balanced his budget with cigarette taxes and had planned on bringing in a financial windfall. Instead, smuggling and buttlegging are on the rise, and people are even dying in gangland turf wars.
Another irony is that illegal buttlegging takes government completely out of the loop. Gang-bangers selling illegal cigarettes on the street won’t be checking IDs to make sure that they aren’t selling to children. Smoking bans and sin taxes are making cigarettes more accessible to young people than before.
I believe that it is in the public interest for government to provide economic disincentives when it comes to tobacco consumption. For these disincentives to have any hope of success, governments MUST come together and agree on a common plan for attacking the problem. Different approaches in different states only means that, just as water always seeks the lowest point, so will tobacco smugglers. If states cannot agree on a common approach, situations such as what currently exists on the East Coast will continue to flourish. Black markets thrive on uncertainty and lack of control. Tobacco can be effectively disincentivized, but only with an agreement between states on how to create said disincentive. Of course, with so many state and local governments advancing their own agendas, the chances of any sort of unified effort emerging is about the same as my becoming the Queen of England.
