Cigarette Police in Tennessee Using Surveillance to Crack Down on Smokers
This is a case of what happens when you get greedy and over tax something. To sum it up beginning on July 1st of this year Tennessee raised the cigarette tax from .20 cents a pack to .62 cents a pack. There are eight states that border Tennessee and all of them have much lower cigarette taxes. Naturally Tennessee residents are crossing the border to save up to .45 cents a pack.
Cigarette taxes aren’t designed to help smokers quit as the liberals would have you believe, they are just an opportunity for liberals to make a profit off of an addiction. If they truly wanted you to quit smoking they would ban cigarettes, but they won’t because the money is too good.
Tennessee raised the taxes so high that many, many Tennessee residents are going elsewhere for their cigarettes, and that is where the problem lies. Tennessee has so over taxed cigarettes they are now losing too much money to other states, and they can’t have that.
The idea is for the monitoring agent to spot a person buying cigarettes in volume at an out-of-state market, then departing in a vehicle with Tennessee license tags. Starting today, monitoring agents spotting such a suspect will call an arresting agent who will stop the car when it enters Tennessee, he said.
You may think this is a case of people traveling over the border, and buying cigarettes in bulk to resell them illegally, but you would be wrong. This is simply a case of the Tennessee government being upset that people aren’t willing to pay the ultra-high tax increase imposed on them.
Under state law, bringing more than two cartons of cigarettes into the state without paying Tennessee taxes is a “Class B” misdemeanor, carrying punishment of up to six months in jail and/or a $500 fine. Bringing 25 or more cartons is a “Class E” felony, with minimum penalty of one year in prison and a maximum of six years plus a fine of up to $3,000.
In addition, the specific state statute dealing with untaxed cigarettes provides that vehicles used to transport more than two cartons “are considered contraband and are subject to seizure,” says a Department of Revenue statement.
If you cross the border with untaxed cigarettes you are transporting contraband. This is unbelievable. How dare you save money by purchasing cigarettes in another state. As I said earlier, this is a case where the government has over taxed the people and forced them to go to another state to buy what they want. The government tries to push the envelope with taxes, but eventually the people reach a breaking point and that seems to be happening here. So now it’s up to the government to crack down on these scofflaws who are trying to save a few dollars.
America's Watchtower 
Goodness, I actually feel bad for the smokers. And I kept on laughing the more I read about the criminal penalites. That is so insane. I hope a good constututional law defense attorney can get injunctions on those “scofflaws” as you said. Good grief.
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How is it that cigarettes and smokers have become public enemy number one? It is really disheartening that every minority group in America has people who stand up and raise a big stink every time somebody even thinks some rights might be infringed on… Yet smokers – a minority group – has nobody to stand up for them and every day there are more and more attacks against their rights. I’m not even a smoker, but even I see how twisted this is.
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I suppose the Big Tobacco lobby would represent the smoking minority.
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this was a funny read. I lived in Tennessee for 8 years – it’s an amazing state. But that tax is silly.
Personally, I think nicotine addicts should have a harder time buying the drug that fuels their addition in the form of cigarettes. But this tax is having unintended effects and the work-around is more unnecessary laws.
If cigarettes are such a problem, states should take a bold stand. Otherwise, good luck trying to keep addicts from buying their cheap fixes elsewhere.
I disagree with the notion that we should see these nicotine addicts as a minority group. They are addicts! Let’s stop calling them smokers and call them what they really are. People who have a drink multiple times a day are alcoholics and need rehab. Smokers are nicotine addicts that need help. There is no purpose in smoking save getting an addiction.
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