New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | March 29, 2006

Jacob Sullum explains how the Master Settlement Agreement has turned all of America into Flavor Country.

Comments

|3.29.06 @ 12:43PM|#

Big Government and Big Tobacco have not just joined forces; they've become synonymous.

So true - especially in New York, pushing $8 a pack. I have half a mind to quit just to stick it to both of them.

|3.29.06 @ 12:44PM|#

Any settlement in a lawsuit that deliberately harms innocent third parties ought to be an illegal settlement.

Even if those innocent third parties are vile cigarette makers who weren't party to any settlement and still potentially liable for any future government extortion, er, settlement.

This all comes from treating adults like children who aren't allowed to make their own risk/reward decisions.

No, I don't own any tobacco stocks.

|3.29.06 @ 1:00PM|#

Are there any laws against selling packs of cigarettes from self-grown tobacco or the seeds themselves?

I mean, despite the obvious "selling to minors" restriction.

|3.29.06 @ 1:01PM|#

Are there any laws against selling packs of cigarettes from self-grown tobacco or the seeds themselves?

I mean, despite the obvious "selling to minors" restriction.

|3.29.06 @ 1:12PM|#

Most states tax the shit out of cigarettes, so if you sold them without a stamp indicating that you had paid the taxes, yes, that would be against the law.

That's the hook that N.Y. uses to nab the folks who drive back from N.C. and Va. with vans full of cigarettes for sale in your local bodega. Basically, it's a tax issue and also one of economic protectionism for wholesalers--and the anti-smoking nanny staters, of course.

amazingdrx|3.29.06 @ 1:12PM|#

Hehehey, $8 a pack?

Get 'em on a reservation. Cheap smokes for all of you mowrons. Hilarious.

Ought to hand 'em out free to wing nuts to improve the state of humanity.

|3.29.06 @ 1:17PM|#

Also, as a practical matter, tobacco won't grow in a "coat-closet hydroponic garden" the way pot does. So, unless your back forty happens to be somewhere along Tobacco Road, you're probably out of luck.

|3.29.06 @ 1:17PM|#

Are there any laws against selling packs of cigarettes from self-grown tobacco or the seeds themselves?

I don't think you understand how things work nowadays... if the law doesn't specificly allow it, it is not allowed. You are going to have a hard time getting the government to approve your operation, and if they don't approve, you are screwed.

And I am not joking... you do realise we live in a police state, by any reasonable definition of the word, right?

grylliade|3.29.06 @ 1:18PM|#

Ought to hand 'em out free to wing nuts to improve the state of humanity.

Cigarette, Dr. X? It's free.

Larry A|3.29.06 @ 1:21PM|#

Might be interesting to see a list of industries (tobacco, gasoline, alcohol, etc.) where the government makes a bigger profit than the manufacturer.

|3.29.06 @ 1:23PM|#

From Cato.org
The 1998 tobacco settlement is a sophisticated, white-collar crime instigated by contingency fee lawyers in pursuit of unimaginable riches.

Government beyond a certain minimal level is just a big scam, but usually it's a little more subtle.

|3.29.06 @ 1:33PM|#

Have drx and Jersey McJones ever been seen in the same thread?

|3.29.06 @ 1:50PM|#

mg, I was just wondering the same thing.

|3.29.06 @ 1:53PM|#

>i>Have drx and Jersey McJones ever been seen in the same thread?

Yeah, they are in The Filthy Bumper Sticker Gang thread.

Amy Phillips|3.29.06 @ 2:38PM|#

By the logic of the Raich decision, it should be illegal to grow your own tobacco for personal use because any tobacco you grow yourself is tobacco you're not buying from major corporations who pay taxes and finance the Master Settlement.

|3.29.06 @ 11:19PM|#

"A decade ago, states started suing cigarette makers, demanding compensation for the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses under Medicaid."

A teacher in high school told me that smokers actually cost the government less, because they die at a younger age, and they die quicker, so they drain less money from medicare/medicaid, and social security. Does anyone know of any studies done on this?

|3.30.06 @ 2:38AM|#

When did you go to high school? My understanding of things now is that cancer is one of the most expensive ways to die, because cancer has a lot of expensive treatments.

I could be wrong.

No one is forcing the states to provide funding for healthcare. It seems to me their claims regarding damages are thin to none. Individuals, perhaps, if you think they are victims of fraud; the state, no merit. However, this is the US of lawsuits A, and merit is irrelevant in law.

|3.30.06 @ 2:50AM|#

Don't know how it works in other states, but here in CA, a way around the MSA (and the tax stamp) was to sell "little cigars" instead of cigarettes. One brand that comes to mind is Primetime little cigars. They could be sold just like cigarettes in packs of 20. They didn't need to on the MSA list (http://www.ag.ca.gov/tobacco/directory.htm) or need a tax stamp.

I am not exactly sure what is happening now in CA. A lot of the "little cigars" are now being reclassified as cigarettes under the tax law, and therefore need a tax stamp just like cigarettes. But I am not sure if that redefintion under that tax law will require them to be listed on the MSA list (and pay into escrow). Again this is only how it works in California, don't know about the others.

What I do know is that in the next few months a lot of retailers will have their stock of "little cigars" seized because they are now untaxed cigarettes (even though they were legal when they purchased them).