Tobacco.org

EDITORIAL: Smokers to unfairly bear deficit burden 

Tobacco companies are currently facing state lawsuits and paying for one's they have already lost because they refuse to admit their products are dangerous to the consumer's health. But if the consumer has been deceived, why, then, is the state taxing them? After all, according to these lawsuits, the customer is the victim. They were misled at some point and are now suffering addiction, lung cancer, emphysema or other diseases. The state is suing on behalf of those it has singled out in this new tax.

Equally as troublesome as California's conflicting mission of both "protecting" and punishing smokers is the casual nature with which the state imposes laws governing behavior. As long as tobacco is legal, people have a right to smoke; they have a right to make decisions about their own health just as public establishments have the right to ban smoking in enclosed areas to protect others' health. Smokers have been scapegoats numerous times in the past; they often face new taxes to fund programs with no correlation whatsoever to smoking, such as early education development programs and breast cancer research.

The state shouldn't exploit one population by capitalizing on private decisions. If the state needs money, it should pick the pockets of those who have it, not a population in which almost half of its members are considered poor.

Jump to full article »