The excessive taxes areall specifically designed to make people quit, and deter others from starting.
I heard an interview several months back with a woman in the administration (can't remember her name) who either previously or currently was tied into a high echelon health position (like surgeon generals office or something)
She was talking about a single payer health care system and she said the number one thing that had to change in America for such a system to be successful was the overall health of the average american must improve so as to reduce the stress load on the system. She specifically cited things that could be controlled, such as people quitting smoking, and people exercising to reduce things like diabetes.
It was only a month or two later the big taxes were pushed though on tobacco, and now the new regulations just were passed to make it even more expensive and seriously curb the tobacco companies ability to advertise and lower the use of addictive aditives and nicotine. It is a concerted attack on the cigarrette industry.
I smoke largely because I am addicted, bth to the nicotine, and more problematic, to the social and physical habit. In the back of my mind I approve of this approach as the tobacco companies have gotten fat for far to long on a product they know is deadly, with little or no redeeming value to the product. I know it will mean lost jobs, but really, it is past time to address the problem. Re-educate the workers, or switch the fields to other products.
I did hear a while back that as taxes have grown, some of the farmers have rotated fields to other smokable products that are less legal shall we say. In some of the smaller southern communities where everyone knows everyone the law has actually looked the other way if the amount of product being produced was kept to a level that stayed beneath the radar. Not saying that is the answer to the lost tobacco jobs, just looking at cause and affect.
I heard an interview several months back with a woman in the administration (can't remember her name) who either previously or currently was tied into a high echelon health position (like surgeon generals office or something)
She was talking about a single payer health care system and she said the number one thing that had to change in America for such a system to be successful was the overall health of the average american must improve so as to reduce the stress load on the system. She specifically cited things that could be controlled, such as people quitting smoking, and people exercising to reduce things like diabetes.
It was only a month or two later the big taxes were pushed though on tobacco, and now the new regulations just were passed to make it even more expensive and seriously curb the tobacco companies ability to advertise and lower the use of addictive aditives and nicotine. It is a concerted attack on the cigarrette industry.
I smoke largely because I am addicted, bth to the nicotine, and more problematic, to the social and physical habit. In the back of my mind I approve of this approach as the tobacco companies have gotten fat for far to long on a product they know is deadly, with little or no redeeming value to the product. I know it will mean lost jobs, but really, it is past time to address the problem. Re-educate the workers, or switch the fields to other products.
I did hear a while back that as taxes have grown, some of the farmers have rotated fields to other smokable products that are less legal shall we say. In some of the smaller southern communities where everyone knows everyone the law has actually looked the other way if the amount of product being produced was kept to a level that stayed beneath the radar. Not saying that is the answer to the lost tobacco jobs, just looking at cause and affect.
