unintended consequences: how the war on tobacco put lives at risk. (Kennedy, Seattle)

[wutitiz]

The war on tobacco began to ramp up in the early to mid 1990's. One of the first ideas was to jack up cigarette taxes as a way to discourage people from smoking. Ted Kennedy was an early proponent. At the time I remember writing a letter to the editor predicting that one result would be increased armed robberies. Sure enough 15 years later, it has come to pass as I predicted.

Convenience stores in Federal Way hit by armed robbers | KING5.com Seattle

In each case the robbers escaped with cash and cigarettes. All convenience stores have safes accessible only to the day manager. Accumulating cash from sales is dropped into the safe, and only a small amount is kept in the till. The take for an armed robber is only $50-100 in most robberies. This greatly reduced the risk/reward ratio, and for a while robberies were falling. Ballooning tobacco taxes have changed the picture, though.

A pack of cigarettes is now close to $10 in the Seattle area. A robber can hand a Hefty bag to the clerk, demand it be filled with cartons, and with twenty cartons of cigs, and he has a take of $2000 at full retail value. If he sells them for even 1/3 of that on the street, it's still a reasonable take for 2 minutes of work. If you google 'convenience store robbery+cigarettes' you'll get no shortage of hits. It's happening around the country.

So now convenience store clerks, many of them 47 percenters just trying to get by, have their lives put at risk every time they show up for work, just so some gov't health nannies can feel oh-so-virtuous (and rake in oodles of revenue while they're at it).

[A&M_Indie_08]

Originally Posted by wutitiz

The war on tobacco began to ramp up in the early to mid 1990's. One of the first ideas was to jack up cigarette taxes as a way to discourage people from smoking. Ted Kennedy was an early proponent. At the time I remember writing a letter to the editor predicting that one result would be increased armed robberies. Sure enough 15 years later, it has come to pass as I predicted.

Convenience stores in Federal Way hit by armed robbers | KING5.com Seattle

In each case the robbers escaped with cash and cigarettes. All convenience stores have safes accessible only to the day manager. Accumulating cash from sales is dropped into the safe, and only a small amount is kept in the till. The take for an armed robber is only $50-100 in most robberies. This greatly reduced the risk/reward ratio, and for a while robberies were falling. Ballooning tobacco taxes have changed the picture, though.

A pack of cigarettes is now close to $10 in the Seattle area. A robber can hand a Hefty bag to the clerk, demand it be filled with cartons, and with twenty cartons of cigs, and he has a take of $2000 at full retail value. If he sells them for even 1/3 of that on the street, it's still a reasonable take for 2 minutes of work. If you google 'convenience store robbery+cigarettes' you'll get no shortage of hits. It's happening around the country.

So now convenience store clerks, many of them 47 percenters just trying to get by, have their lives put at risk every time they show up for work, just so some gov't health nannies can feel oh-so-virtuous (and rake in oodles of revenue while they're at it).

I agree.... it is important to educate people on the possible dangers of smoking cigs, but this is insane

In NY for instance, with this huge tax, they have created a huge underground black market....."cig houses" are popping up everywhere kind of like crack houses are everywhere

By doing these things they are creating gang activity (as if we need any more of that in America where it is at all time highs)

[wutitiz]

Originally Posted by A&M_Indie_08

I agree.... it is important to educate people on the possible dangers of smoking cigs, but this is insane

In NY for instance, with this huge tax, they have created a huge underground black market....."cig houses" are popping up everywhere kind of like crack houses are everywhere

By doing these things they are creating gang activity (as if we need any more of that in America where it is at all time highs)

Yeah this is yet another aspect of it. There are not just convenience robberies happening, but smuggling rings. Sooner or later violence will enter into that equation and innocents will end up caught in the crossfire. In fact, I imagine this has already happened, but I just haven't seen the news stories.