The New Prohibition: Tobacco
The nationwide ban on alcohol did not start with the 18th amendment. Several states and local governments banned or severely restricted its use prior to the 18th amendment. Local and state measures often precede nationwide ones. There is a strong anti-tobacco sentiment amongst many Americans and many legislators are quick to capitalize on it. This sentiment is not all together a bad thing, tobacco use is harmful to one's health, but many people want to take the next step.
Many Americans would probably not advocate an outright ban on tobacco, but with every regulatory measure and tax that passes, Americans are well on their way to prohibiting tobacco. Tobacco is on the road to being regulated to death. Evidence of this can already be seen as gray/black markets for tobacco already exist. Tobacco is an easy target to bully and bash during a campaign and the alluring dollar signs it promises for governments are not easy to pass up. Who really wants to rally against a tax hike for cigarettes? As the taxes on tobacco increase so will tobacco's trade on the black market. Few seem to realize this. When people want to show that increased taxes decrease tobacco use, I hardly think illegal tobacco is factored in.
De facto prohibition is all but a certainty if sane people do not intervene now and say enough is enough. Tobacco is already banned in Bhutan. If you think a ban on tobacco could not happen in the U.S.A then remember that we were the ones dumb enough to try a ban on alcohol about a hundred years ago.
The prohibition on alcohol looks very much the way the prohibition on tobacco is shaping up. Even during the temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tobacco was on its bull's eye as well as opiates and cocaine. Neither of these bans has worked, and a ban on tobacco looks to go off just about as well.
I, like many people, tend to see liberties as a package deal. If the right to use tobacco is gone what is next? Caffeine? A ban on tobacco would only mean the loss of a small freedom, but it is a freedom none the less. We all should cherish our freedoms, even the freedom to use tobacco.
Published by David Whitsell
Dark child tying to make it in the world. View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentThere are no small freedoms. Anti-tobacco hurts the economy, jobs, privately owned businesses, takes away the right to assemble of a significant minority, ruins the social lives of millions of Americans; these are not small things.
Prohibitionism doesn't work; it never has and it never will. People still use drugs and drink even in countries that apply the death penalty for these behaviors. What was one of the first things that people started doing in Kabul when the Taliban was driven out? They started lighting cigarettes. I'm no fan of the tobacco industry, but I still have 1-3 smokes a day, and if the do-gooders try to take those from me I'm leaving the country. Thanks for a great article.