Increasing tobacco taxes is not the better action to discourage tobacco use. The only thing needed to start a crime wave is to make it difficult for addicts to satisfy their needs. Prohibiting alcohol in the 1920s or establishing stupid laws for to discourage drug use, never have worked. They only helped to fuel a black market. The result of such kind of legislations can be organized crime, continuous violence, inflated jails and billions of tax dollars wasted.

As it is known, smoking addiction is not a crime but a disease that needs to be treated or prevented. People who cannot, or will not, uphold the treatment process continue the use of the addictive substances, because nicotine is an addictive substance just like alcohol, cocaine and heroin. While cigarettes are legal, government forces all over are placing higher taxes on smokers, making it harder for low-income addicts to access the drug called nicotine. For example, Florida smokers are now paying one more dollar per cigarettes pack, on top of the 62 percent federal increase earlier this year. Nonsmokers have no attraction, considering that the higher tax will encourage some of smokers to quit.

But most of nonsmokers don’t think so, because of taxes, anyway. "As a younger person, I might well have bought black- market cigarettes at prices that could be afforded. Paying $3 a pack, compared to $6 and $8, would have a significant impact on a personal budget," said a regular smoker.

More than 700 new cases of illegal cigarette trafficking have been opened in the last five years, reported Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. In New York City, smokers are hoped to pay $9 a pack. It’s only a reason of time before the smugglers will become as much a goal of law pressure as cocaine traders. However, smokers will continue to light up. Canada is also dealing with cigarette crime. For example, in May, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police caught almost two million cigarettes near the Ontario/Manitoba verge. During National Road Safety week along the Trans Canada Highway, officers seized 150 cases of unlawful tobacco products.

If the trends continue, much of the money gathered from taxation is going to be assimilated in the criminal justice system, explained scientists. Of course it is very important to discourage smoking and lessen the diseases caused by tobacco use, but it must be done through education and modified sensations, especially among teenagers, where the bad habits usually start.
Scientists concluded that health issues should be as much a part of the learning process for kids as math and science are.