A doubling of the rates looks more like arbitrary taxation meant to bolster general fund collections, and excise taxes are poor vehicles for stable revenue due to their narrow design
Thats a huge perception gap
[122] Similar bans have passed in California in the cities of Oakland and Sonoma as well as in San Mateo, Contra Costa and Yolo counties
A 2020 New York seizure of 6,267 cartons of cigarettes required a long-term investigation, including court-authorized search warrants, wiretaps, grand jury subpoenas, and other investigative tools.[2] A Wellesley Island Station Anti-Smuggling Unit, with the help of US Border Patrol agents, seized more than 1 million cigarettes (worth more than $300,000) in April 2024.[3] A 2023 New York City raid seized more than 1,800 cartons of cigarettes and $155,000 in cash.[4] But even when successful, policing smuggling is costly and only prohibits a drop of water in the East River of smuggling activity
that we are on top of the cigarette bootlegging situation."[39] Another major change to the statute in 1951 was the addition of the transporter section
