New York State health officials have started laying the groundwork to prohibit the sale of all tobacco products within a decade. In the meantime, transition steps are being weighed, such as restricting the number of retailers that are allowed to sell these products, and increasing taxes on cigarettes.
This episode of What’s Ahead explains the utter stupidity of this move.
At the same time, New York is urging people to buy marijuana at state-approved outlets instead of the thousands of illegal pot shops that have popped up since weed was legalized. So cigarette sales are going to be outlawed, while purchasing pot is OK. What’s the health rationale here?
Cigarette bootlegging, which already provides almost half the sales of butts in the Empire State, will boom as never before. A simultaneous tax boost will bash tax receipts even more.
What are these health bureaucrats inhaling? The idea of a tobacco Prohibition is preposterous and should go up in smoke.