However you may feel about cigarettes and smoking, the new federal tobacco taxshould appear excessive.

The new tax which will be effective April 1st will increase the price of tobacco by the pound. According to CVS employees and The Pipe Den, a local tobacco store here in Vero Beach, Fl, some companies have already raised the prices for their products and are currently selling them for an exaggerated prices, while the price will go up to around 50 dollars a pound.

I bought one of these such products today: a tin of Bugler tabacco. I began rolling my own cigarettes while living in upstate New York due to the incredibly high taxes there (the highest of all the states); by doing so, I saved a decent amount of money and began smoking less. The price I have typically paid for a tin was around 13-15 dollars; meanwhile the cost I paid today was 32 dollars: that id well over a 100% increase. These taxes will be higher than those I faced in New York!

Apparently, this new tax is a move by Obama to raise money (33 billion) for a new health initiative for children’s health care, with a side gain of increasing the quit rate among tobacco users.

I do not miss the nobility of such a move; however, I feel, it is very misguided. Smokers will not quit simply because the price has gone up– and this is exactly why they expect to obtain 33 billion from this endeavor– for the smoker it is about an addiction that they MUST pacify, whole with withdrawal that is incredibly uncomfortable. Furthermore, there have been studies that have shown that nicotine is a more addictive drug than heroin. Think about it, if the street price of heroin was raised would addicts stop shooting up? Of course not.

Another factor that just sickens me about this is that the prices will be raised to such a ridiculous price, with people left with no choice but to pay, during an economic recession. This doesn’t help anyone: most people are not happy to be smoking, but need to smoke and arguing against this point is null.

Smoking is a bad choice, but at some point it stops becoming a choice and quitting can interfere greatly in ones life (that is, it is important to find a right time to quit that will have a better chance of being successful). Furthermore, multiple relapses are inevitable in most cases so, while quitting and relapsing, the addict must shell out these exorbitant costs.

My last word on this points back to when the tax on tea and other products was once raised in the American colonies by Britain: what did we do then? Or, how about when alcohol was prohibited? The simple fact of the matter, is that the federal government has no right to enforce such an opressive tax. Where is the capitalistic freedom political patriots so often like to tout: I guess the free market isn’t so free when an individual chooses to freely buy a product some find distateful. Well, I’m sorry but this is self-righteous, especially from a President who used to smoke and still occasionally gets caught doing so.

I’m already hurting in these troubling times. I say we start smuggling and have a new tea party (and by that I mean an illegal act of civil disobedience, not the ordered activism of a group of people who would look at horror upon such an act).

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March 30, 2009

Categories: Society, politics, culture, etc., Uncategorized . Tags:addict, addiction, boston tea party, economic recession, health care, health initiative, heroin, nicotene, nicotine., personal rights, President Obama, prohibition, rebellion, riot, smuggling, tax, tobacco, tobacco tax, unconstitutional . Author: christophpissedoff

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