To think we won't get taxed is naive. However, we definitely shouldn't be taxed like tobacco and neither should any smokeless tobacco product for that matter.
Now, that's the gospel! Down in New Zealand, the researcher doing e-cigarette studies funded by Ruyan, Dr. Murray Laugesen, is anti-smoking. He wants all tobacco use phased out in a decade. To get there, he proposes to "incentivize" use by differing tax structures.
Cigarettes get the highest tax -- and it keeps rising. Cigars and pipes get a lesser tax. Snus and snuff get almost no tax. Same for e-cigs. His idea is to shift addicts from the most harmful addiction to something with little or no harm. But if smokeless products are killed in infancy, addicts might never be able to make that transition. The result will be the continuing death toll from use of cigarettes.
At this point, we can only hope that reason rules. Lacey is high on hope. Sadly, I have my doubts.
