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I've seen a family member commit slow-motion suicide with alcohol. Nothing I saw made me think that it would be better if he had to pay a black-market markup to

I've seen a family member commit slow-motion suicide with alcohol. Nothing I saw made me think that it would be better if he had to pay a black-market markup to get his fix, or that incarceration would have benefited him, or that his incarceration would have benefited the people he hurt.

pmoriarty 9y ago
I've seen family members commit slow-motion suicide with food -- overeating until they're morbidly obese, and suffering all sorts of horrible health issues as a result, up to and including death. Yet there isn't the same moral stigma attached to overeating as there is to drug or alcohol addiction, and no one is suggesting throwing obese people in jail or raising the price of food so high that food addicts have to commit crimes in order to feed their addiction. Obesity and alcoholism are seen as health issues, and treated accordingly. The same should be the case with drug addiction.
- lopmotr 9y ago
  Soft drink tax is proposed in the UK, so it's similar to cigarettes or alcohol in that respect.
  - pmoriarty 9y ago
    If the tax is high enough, it encourages organized crime to form a black or gray market, as is the case for cigarettes in the US, which are smuggled and sold on the black market. This results in a quasi-prohibition which has many of the same downsides as full-on prohibition, such as the enabling and funding of organized crime, people getting killed or thrown in jail, and other types of violence. Though the profit margin for smuggled soft drinks is likely to remain too low for organized crime to bother getting involved, I'm not convinced it's the right way forward compared to voluntary, education- and health-based approaches. On the other hand, I am in favor of the $0.10 charge for plastic and paper bags in California, where lots of people often bring their own reusable bags rather than pay the fee for a disposable bag. Perhaps a reasonable surcharge on soft drinks could make a difference to overall public health.
    - GyYZTfWBfQw 9y ago
      > If the tax is high enough, it encourages organized crime to form a black or gray market, as is the case for cigarettes in the US, which are smuggled and sold on the black market. Yep. Same with marijuana: https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/04/02/californias-new-recreational-marijuana-m https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/04/02/californias-new-recre...

pmoriarty 9y ago

I've seen family members commit slow-motion suicide with food -- overeating until they're morbidly obese, and suffering all sorts of horrible health issues as a result, up to and including death. Yet there isn't the same moral stigma attached to overeating as there is to drug or alcohol addiction, and no one is suggesting throwing obese people in jail or raising the price of food so high that food addicts have to commit crimes in order to feed their addiction. Obesity and alcoholism are seen as health issues, and treated accordingly. The same should be the case with drug addiction.

lopmotr 9y ago
Soft drink tax is proposed in the UK, so it's similar to cigarettes or alcohol in that respect.
- pmoriarty 9y ago
  If the tax is high enough, it encourages organized crime to form a black or gray market, as is the case for cigarettes in the US, which are smuggled and sold on the black market. This results in a quasi-prohibition which has many of the same downsides as full-on prohibition, such as the enabling and funding of organized crime, people getting killed or thrown in jail, and other types of violence. Though the profit margin for smuggled soft drinks is likely to remain too low for organized crime to bother getting involved, I'm not convinced it's the right way forward compared to voluntary, education- and health-based approaches. On the other hand, I am in favor of the $0.10 charge for plastic and paper bags in California, where lots of people often bring their own reusable bags rather than pay the fee for a disposable bag. Perhaps a reasonable surcharge on soft drinks could make a difference to overall public health.
  - GyYZTfWBfQw 9y ago
    > If the tax is high enough, it encourages organized crime to form a black or gray market, as is the case for cigarettes in the US, which are smuggled and sold on the black market. Yep. Same with marijuana: https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/04/02/californias-new-recreational-marijuana-m https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/04/02/californias-new-recre...