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A tax designed to both obtain revenue for the government, and to prevent people from dying of respiratory conditions has been enforced...at the cost of almost six million dollars and a man dying of respiratory issues.

You had ONE JOB, Cigarette Taxes!

You know those government-sponsored ads that portray cigarettes as tiny mullet-wearing bullies, by comparing the expense of cigarettes to being mugged, or having to go outside to smoke as being violently dragged away from preferred activities? Well, that's not cigarettes forcing you to do that stuff, that's the EXACT SAME people who made that ad! They are the ones who lobbied for all the laws that prevent even private businesses from allowing smoking indoors, or such excessive taxes on cigarettes. When I was a cashier in a drug store, a pack was $2.25. Now, when I buy them for my grandmother, they are four or five times that, due almost solely to taxes, rather than costs or inflation. A can of soda or a candy bar has gone up maybe 50 cents in the same time period. The government is the one who gave a tobacco habit all the unsavory characteristics they portray in their ads! It's like if the government armed police with assault rifles, and then turned around and accused them of civil rights violations when they gunned someone down...oh, wait. Bad example.

I like this outcome a lot more than indicting a bunch of idiot stormtroopers for following orders.