Anonymous wrote:I remember when a pack was less than $2 including taxes. I think a pack should be closer to $20.

But a ban is silly. If people want to smoke then let them pay for it fairly. A ban turns smoking into a moral issue and that is a huge mistake. Remember the prohibition? That worked out really well.....

They've raised the cost of smokes in Australia way over $20/pack and more people are smoking than before the tax hikes. Go figure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that's great! MD and VA should do the same

+1

Start taxing sugar too. No more ads. Treat sugar like nicotine.

Hmm. Not a bad idea. But why stop there? Let's tax meat too. Very bad for the environment and not healthy for many people.

I also think we should quadruple taxes on alcohol.

We should tax ALL green house gas emissions. This would raise the cost of meat, but not by a lot I think (note the past proposals in congress for pricing carbon excluded agriculture - because politics)

As for health though, there is a pretty vigorous debate on the health impact of different kinds of meat, and of sat fats in general (I am in the limit sat fats camp, but I do recognize there is real scientific debate) . The case against sugar is much stronger.

As for alcohol, the taxes probably should be higher, but not sure where you got "quadruple" from.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that's great! MD and VA should do the same

+1

Start taxing sugar too. No more ads. Treat sugar like nicotine.

Hmm. Not a bad idea. But why stop there? Let's tax meat too. Very bad for the environment and not healthy for many people.

I also think we should quadruple taxes on alcohol.

Anonymous wrote:I think that's great! MD and VA should do the same

+1

Start taxing sugar too. No more ads. Treat sugar like nicotine.