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taxation just creates a grey/black market
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The easiest solution? Tax the bejesus out of them, that way the sufferers cough (bad pun) up the money, without much choice.
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When the State of Florida hiked tobacco taxes through the stratosphere, it had the effect of increasing the size of the black market for cigarettes. See http://tobaccofreekids.org/research/.../pdf/0129.pdf, and http://www.floridataxwatch.org/cigs.htm. I wish I could find one of the original reports, but this is pretty good:
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/199...1/us/us.4.html
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"Significant criminal black-market activities are occurring today both in the United States and Canada," says Rep. Thomas Bliley (R) of Virginia, House Commerce Committee chairman. "It is much more serious than most people know." John Magaw, director of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, estimates that several high-tobacco-tax states are already losing hundreds of millions of dollars because of smuggling from low-tax states such as Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas.
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__________________
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
-- Jefferson
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