During colonial times, the newly discovered tobacco used by natives of the New World was quickly cultivated and sold, and even used as a form of money. In fact, it was a vital part of the economy of the times. But it saw its share of government regulation, through inspections to ensure quality standards, and even taxation.

As early as 1880 tobacco taxes accounted for 31 percent of the total federal tax. From 1910 to the present, taxes on tobacco products have steadily and dramatically increased, and not just at the federal level, but also at state and local levels, until the revenue dumped into government coffers from tobacco is in the billions each year.

One fly in the ointment for government legislators has been Internet and catalogue sales of tobacco products that are delivered through the mail, something the governments of many countries, including the United States, has labeled as cigarette smuggling or tobacco trafficking. If a product is taxed and taxed again, the government has no problem with bringing it to you, but if the government isn’t getting its due, then the loophole must be closed.

That’s exactly what Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) is doing with his recent press for passage of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT) of 2009 — “A bill to prevent tobacco smuggling, to ensure the collection of all tobacco taxes, and for other purposes.” Already moving out of the Judiciary Committee and placed on the Senate legislative calendar for an upcoming vote, the House overwhelmingly passed its version in May.

Senator Kohl is, once again, appealing to the terrorist-scared public to get the bill passed, stating in a release that cigarette trafficking is already a “highly profitable revenue source for criminal and terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, al Qaeda and Hamas.” He continued: “Money is often raised in the United States, then funneled back to these international terrorist groups,” and added, “The 9/11 Commission noted that terrorists often raise money by trafficking in counterfeit goods, such as cigarettes. We can no longer continue to let terrorist organizations exploit the weaknesses in our tobacco laws to their advantage.”

The text of PACT leaves no doubt as to the real goals: raising revenue and extending control of government agencies into personal lives and businesses:

(1) require Internet and other remote sellers of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to comply with the same laws that apply to law-abiding tobacco retailers;


(2) create strong disincentives to illegal smuggling of tobacco products;


(3) provide government enforcement officials with more effective enforcement tools to combat tobacco smuggling;


(4) make it more difficult for cigarette and smokeless tobacco traffickers to engage in and profit from their illegal activities;


(5) increase collections of Federal, State, and local excise taxes on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco; and


(6) prevent and reduce youth access to inexpensive cigarettes and smokeless tobacco through illegal Internet or contraband sales.

Section 3 would make it illegal for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to be sent through the U.S. Postal Service, as it “shall not accept for delivery or transmit through the mails any package that it knows or has reasonable cause to believe contains any cigarettes or smokeless tobacco made nonmailable by this paragraph.”

Other independent carriers of tobacco-containing parcels would be subject to a bureaucratic tangle of regulations, record keeping, and disclosures in order not to suffer any penalties under the law that would include:

(A) in the case of a delivery seller, the greater of —

(i) $5,000 in the case of the first violation, or $10,000 for any other violation; or
‘(ii) for any violation, 2 percent of the gross sales of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco of the delivery seller during the 1-year period ending on the date of the violation.

(B) in the case of a common carrier or other delivery service, $2,500 in the case of a first violation, or $5,000 for any violation within 1 year of a prior violation.

Enforcement would come from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF):

(c)(1) Any officer of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives may, during normal business hours, enter the premises of any person described in subsection (a) or (b) for the purposes of inspecting —

(A) any records or information required to be maintained by the person under this chapter; or


(B) any cigarettes or smokeless tobacco kept or stored by the person at the premises.

Failure to immediately comply might cost as much as $10,000 per incident.

There are some strange bedfellows in those who are organizing in favor of the bill. Aligned in one coalition — Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco — are many wholesale, retail, and convenience store associations, police and sheriff associations, Altria Client Services for Philip Morris, petroleum marketers, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Latino Coalition.

Squaring off in the opposite corner are of course, tobacco vendors, Native American cigarette and tobacco sellers, and average Americans who want to stop the ever-expanding power of the state.

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Pat Henry said:

	Commerce=Smuggling Bad enough we have Congress illegitimately using the Interstate Commerce Clause ("Are you serious?") as an excuse to regulate nearly everything. Now the camel sticks his nose under every envelope by trying to equate commerce with "smuggling." This is why we MUST elect principled Constitutionalists in Federal, and especially State, offices in the next elections.
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November 23, 2009
Votes: +7

DDW said:

Now isn't it odd That this Kohl fop mentions mentions criminal and terrorist organizations? Doesn't that pretty much sum up the fedgov in its current state? I'd also like to point out that it's a democrat, those "liberal" protectors of the people, who's instigating yet another intrusion of an out-of-control, rogue fedgov into the private lives of the citizens who pay his wages. The thing gets more sickening all the time. It needs to be struck down.

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November 24, 2009
Votes: +2

DDW said:

	P.S. I'm very well aware of the fact that the democrats and the republicans are both nothing more than different sides of the same corrupt, vile coin; but I have friends and acquaintances who don't seem to be aware of that very obvious fact who insist on defending the democrats and who, apparently, don't want to be confused with facts.
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November 24, 2009
Votes: +4