Editor’s Note: See Weaponizing Poverty.
From: Reason
Harsh tactics may have failed to stamp out the trade in heroin and cocaine, but they’ll totally work against tobacco smugglers.
Massachusetts has a problem with cigarette smuggling—a problem, that is, from the point of view of tax collectors and government regulators. State officials have hiked tobacco taxes so high in pursuit of the twin not-so-compatible goals of enhancing revenue while also discouraging smoking that people are buying their smokes on the black market, smuggled in from low-tax jurisdictions or overseas.
In response, the state established the Illegal Tobacco Task Force, to crack down on those subjects who refuse to be passively milked or else give up on their vice. That unholy committee of cops and revenooers has come up with a plan for victory in pursuit of its “mission to confront and combat the illegal tobacco trade in Massachusetts”: import personnel and tactics from the war on drugs.
