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Cigarettes are highly taxed and there doesn't seem too be much of a black market for them. Edit: Looks like I was wrong, but the black market is buying legal c

Cigarettes are highly taxed and there doesn't seem too be much of a black market for them. Edit: Looks like I was wrong, but the black market is buying legal cigarettes and driving them across state lines which is a bit different from growing your own tobacco.

tvanantwerp 12y ago
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/20/how-state-taxes-promote-an-underground-cigarette-market/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/20/ho...
gyardley 12y ago
Probably because there's no nearby place to get untaxed cigarettes, and there's not enough profit in growing tobacco and making cigarettes from scratch. When I was in high school, back in the early '90s, the difference in taxes on cigarettes between Ontario and New York was a few dollars a pack - enough to cause a huge black market in smuggled cross-border cigarettes. I didn't buy a legal pack in four years. Now, amusingly, taxes in New York have been raised so much that they're the target of smugglers. (And in Ontario, the Indian reservations that used to do all the smuggling got into the direct manufacturing business, since they can sell on the reservation tax-free.)
jamesbritt 12y ago
There certainly is a black market for cigarettes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/25/why-the-massive-black-market-trade-in-cigarettes-affects-you-even-if-you-dont-smoke/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/25/w...
sk5t 12y ago
There is a black market for cigarettes (to skirt local and state taxes) but I doubt it leads to any significant risk for end-users.
pessimizer 12y ago
http://nypost.com/2014/08/02/cop-who-used-deadly-chokehold-should-be-charged-sharpton/ http://nypost.com/2014/08/02/cop-who-used-deadly-chokehold-s... Loosie seller killed by NYPD.
zenburn 12y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poospatuck_Reservation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poospatuck_Reservation
leoc 12y ago
There's definitely counterfeiting of cigarettes too, and obviously the safety of unregulated, falsely-labelled black-market counterfeits is not assured.
- spacemanmatt 12y ago
  That's funny, because the safety of regulated, arguably truthfully-labeled mainstream brands cannot be assured, either.
  - leoc 12y ago
    This is naturally true; however, there is at least no rat poison in them.

tvanantwerp 12y ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/20/how-state-taxes-promote-an-underground-cigarette-market/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/20/ho...

gyardley 12y ago

Probably because there's no nearby place to get untaxed cigarettes, and there's not enough profit in growing tobacco and making cigarettes from scratch. When I was in high school, back in the early '90s, the difference in taxes on cigarettes between Ontario and New York was a few dollars a pack - enough to cause a huge black market in smuggled cross-border cigarettes. I didn't buy a legal pack in four years. Now, amusingly, taxes in New York have been raised so much that they're the target of smugglers. (And in Ontario, the Indian reservations that used to do all the smuggling got into the direct manufacturing business, since they can sell on the reservation tax-free.)

jamesbritt 12y ago

There certainly is a black market for cigarettes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/25/why-the-massive-black-market-trade-in-cigarettes-affects-you-even-if-you-dont-smoke/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/25/w...

sk5t 12y ago

There is a black market for cigarettes (to skirt local and state taxes) but I doubt it leads to any significant risk for end-users.

pessimizer 12y ago

http://nypost.com/2014/08/02/cop-who-used-deadly-chokehold-should-be-charged-sharpton/ http://nypost.com/2014/08/02/cop-who-used-deadly-chokehold-s... Loosie seller killed by NYPD.

zenburn 12y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poospatuck_Reservation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poospatuck_Reservation

leoc 12y ago

There's definitely counterfeiting of cigarettes too, and obviously the safety of unregulated, falsely-labelled black-market counterfeits is not assured.

spacemanmatt 12y ago
That's funny, because the safety of regulated, arguably truthfully-labeled mainstream brands cannot be assured, either.
- leoc 12y ago
  This is naturally true; however, there is at least no rat poison in them.