What's all the fuss these days about cigarette smoking being addictive? Just mention to anyone who's ever smoked long enough to develop the "habit" that modern science has just discovered smoking cigarettes might be addictive and I believe you will hear a resounding, "No s--t!"
Apparently, all these scientists have never smoked or they wouldn't need zillions of dollars to "discover" that smoking might be addictive. Wait a minute--did I say "zillions of dollars?" Things are starting to fall into place. What if there are 43 million American smokers, each of whom smoke an average of one pack of cigarettes a day 365 days a year at $2.50 per pack (conservative estimate). That's $107,500,000.00 per day or roughly 40 billion dollars a year. Certainly not zillions of dollars, but close. Could it be that all this fuss is over money--not health, not addictions, not ozone problems--but cold, hard cash?
Substitute the word "cash" for the word "addiction" and we've opened a major can of worms. Worms with names like producing, harvesting, selling, marketing, selling, packaging, selling, advertising, selling, buying and buying and buying. Seems to me this whole smoking thing boils down to a lot more than 43 million people who can't or don't want to live without a cigarette.
Just outlaw the stuff, you say. Seems to me that a sudden annihilation of the tobacco industry would be a devastating blow to the economy at best. Let's think about it.
First you would have all those farmers in the tobacco growing states who owe their livelihood to this industry. Certainly they could find other things to grow, but what? If memory serves, the original colonists were starving to death until they found out they could export tobacco to Europe. You might say that this nation was founded on the tobacco industry. Too strong? Maybe so. But quite probable.
Then if you didn't have tobacco growers, what would all those people who buy and trade tobacco do for a living? Buy and trade something else, you say, but what? That leaves us with the people who package the stuff and advertise the stuff and sell the stuff with nothing to do. Suddenly you would have millions of people out of work, not to mention that 43 million of those millions would be doing anything they could to get their hands on a cigarette.
Of course, some people would just chalk it up to Big Brother government screwing up one more little daily pleasure and quit. But what about those who would see this annihilation of the tobacco industry as an opportunity of a lifetime. Millions of people willing to do just about anything or pay just about anything for a cigarette? Only one thing to do--get cigarettes for them and charge them a fortune. All you'd need is a source and a truck. Very little overhead. No need for marketing, the market's already there knocking your door down. Only problem--THE LAW. So buy the law, cut them in on the deal. They probably smoke, too.
Who was it? Oh, yes, wasn't it the Mafia that made money hand over fist during prohibition? Isn't it the Mafia that makes just about all its money on the black market? I can just see the Mafia now, stockpiling cigarettes in huge underground warehouses all over the world, just waiting for their chance--smiling all the way to their Swiss bank accounts.
Riots in the streets? Probably. People getting killed. Certainly. Happens all the time in prison. Millions of nicotine depraved citizens suddenly thrown at the mercy of our already overtaxed welfare system. I did it again. Did I say "overtaxed?"
Ever stopped to consider how much of the $107,500,000.00 a day or roughly 40 billion dollars a year is in the form of taxes? Last I heard, it costs about ___ cents per pack to produce a pack of cigarettes. The rest goes to taxes. Taxes for what(?)--schools, highways, bridges, electricity, cable television, safe drinking water, public safety, armies, space stations--the list goes on and on.
And guess what? Today both houses of congress proposed a "healthcare for everyone" package. Guess where both houses plan to get the money to fund their proposals? A $.45 per pack tax on cigarettes. Let's see--using the same numbers as before--that's 43 million American smokers, each of whom smoke an average of one pack of cigarettes a day 365 days a year at $.45 per pack (just to fund healthcare reform), that's $19,350,000 a day or roughly 7 billion dollars a year. What a country!
I don't think the question here is whether or not smoking cigarettes is addictive. Any smoker who's felt his anxiety level go off the chart or had his hands shake or squirmed at that big knot in the pit of his stomach can tell you that smoking cigarettes most certainly is addictive, whether RJ Reynolds or any other tobacco producing company wants to admit it or not. The question is what do we replace it with. What do all those farmers and marketers and packagers and advertisers and sellers and buyers do instead? Nor do I think the question here is whether or not the government is going to outlaw cigarettes (obviously not, considering today's proposal to fund healthcare reform with a cigarette tax). The question is, "Where else could we get the tax dollars so desperately needed to keep our society running?" It's a problem much bigger than the battle cry of all those self-righteous ex- and anti-smokers--"I'm allergic to smoke!" I'd be willing to bet my last cigarette they're not allergic to tax revenues.
© 2005, Cindy Staudenmaier
