On Tobacco, Vaping, Etc.

GENERALLY SPEAKING

  • I SUPPORT RAISING THE MININUM AGE TO USE TOBACCO OR VAPING PRODUCTS TO 21+.  I ALSO SUPPORT MOST OF THE TAXES AND REGULATIONS THAT ARE IMPOSED ON THESE VICES.
  • I DO NOT SUPPORT A BAN ON TOBACCO/VAPING PRODUCTS AND I DO NOT WANT THE TAXES/REGULATIONS TO CREATE A DANGEROUS UNDERGROUND ECONOMY.

UNPUBLISHED.  SUBMITTED TO THE STAR TRIBUNE AROUND THE TIME THAT THE NEW CITY LAW WAS BEING DEBATED.  SUMMER, 2024.

I do not smoke cigarettes or marijuana.  I have family and friends that do partake and that is why I tend to take a reasonably libertarian attitude on these particular drugs.  

 

I appreciate the public health interest and I am not rejecting any regulations. Still, I believe that high taxes or too much regulation on these so-called "vices" will probably have unintentional consequences.

I am a part of the Xennial Generation and in my younger days, smoking and drinking were certainly cool things to do.  Being a nerd, I had neither the desire nor the potential to be cool.   
Yet, in high school, I read a book by the late Peter McWilliams titled Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, which made the libertarian case for the legalization of victimless or consensual crimes.  I am not a member of the Libertarian Party, and I feel that the book sometimes oversimplifies public health interests, but the idea that the best way to handle vice is to criminalize it or tax it to the Stone Age, does seem to be a bad one.
The high tax imposed on cigarettes in Minneapolis is unlikely to make ciggies uncool.  It is going to hurt small businesses, some of which are run by minorities, and it will probably increase crime as a huge underground economy arises to meet the demand of poor and working-class smokers.
Tax and regulate vice but do so reasonably and compassionately.