Is this a good policy?

Dear amblessed, Hmmm…I suppose it is like someone who has enough pot for personal use and they usually are not charged. If they have over they are charged with trafficking. In this case cigarettes are not illegal if purchased by someone who is 21. I am not familiar with your laws there but that sure wouldn’t fly here…there is no such law that states one cannot buy a truck load of cigarettes? I suppose they can stop them for suspicion of selling them across the boarder then there would be a tax to pay…this is what I assume they would be charged with? But I also would think they couldn’t be charged till they crossed the boarder? But what do I know LOL. Sue

Hm…well, if it’ll generate extra revenue for the state, it sounds good to me. The government always seems to be short on funds, so they have to great creative. If you’re toting a “large quantity” of any controlled substance, even a legal one like Cigarettes…then, imho, that’s a public health problem.

Ever hang out in a smoker’s house, etc? Notice how terrible it smells? Or hang out with a smoker after they lit up? The smell is disgusting. I think smoking should be banned, unless it’s in the privacy of your own home. Even when I drive, I can tell if the car in front of me has a driver who’s smoking and it’s gross.

Like the Federal government, state governments refuse to cut spending and insist of constantly enacting new programs to help special interests. At the same time, voters are becoming fed up with taxes making it risky for politicians to raise taxes in general. They are therefore targeting specific groups in the hopes that the individual groups won’t be large enough to be a threat at the polls but still yield additional revenue.

However, this is an indirect tax on everyone since diverting police from protecting citizens from real crimes against persons and property they are essentially nothing more than revenue generators for the seriously ethically challenged politicians running the state.

Do you think there might be a correlation between the rise in home security services offered by the private sector and the increasing diversion of taxpayer supported police to things like highway speed traps and arresting people for buying cigarettes in another state?