Australia, The Ghost Of Christmas Future

Twenty-One Debunked has always (within reason) supported taxation over prohibition, whether age based or otherwise.  Morally, ethically, practically, and constitutionally, it is the better idea on balance.  That goes for alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and just about everything else, with the exception of things (like certain "dangerous and unusual" weapons, or extremely dangerous and irredeemable drugs like fentanyl, for example) that meet the threshold of "extraordinary justification" to ban them.

All that said, taxes really do have their limits though.  One cautionary tale about taxes is Australia, a sort of "Ghost of Christmas Future", as British libertarian Christopher Snowdon calls it.  Their cigarette and other tobacco taxes are ridiculously sky-high, highest in the whole wide world in fact, and even worse, nicotine vapes, pouches, and snus are banned there as well.  And the result?  A massive, and increasingly violent, black market that would make even NYC's look like Disneyland in comparison.  Organized crime syndicates, including some extremely vicious ones, are literally laughing all the way to the bank.

Turf wars, firebombings, and gangland shootings have all increased.  And now these syndicates are reportedly even branching out into yet another product with some of of the highest taxes in the world:  alcohol, particularly hard liquor.

And, irony of ironies, smoking still hasn't come down anywhere near like the government had hoped it would as a result.  If anything, it seems to have increased in very recent years with the practically exponential growth of the black market.  Turns out, if you tax it too much (or ban it, in the case of vapes, pouches, and snus), black markets are more than happy to supply the demand, vitiating and undermining the policy's own ostensible purpose (to say nothing of the revenue losses).  The Australian government has essentially completely lost all control over tobacco now.  

Can you say, "own goal"?  Dunning, meet Kruger.  Natch.

And now the government, especially in the state of Victoria, has announced that they are cracking down on those selling illicit tobacco and nicotine products.  Anything except, of course, the obvious solution: reducing such taxes back to 2016 levels, let alone (gasp!) legalizing and reasonably regulating reduced-harm nicotine and tobacco products like vapes, pouches, and snus.  Granted, the black market is so entrenched now that crackdowns would be needed regardless.  But that is all the more reason to do both/and, not either/or.  Seriously, forest for the trees, people!

And now over to you, Britain, with your new "generational ban" on tobacco products, on top of your already high taxes and thriving black market.  Ignore Australia at your own peril.

P.S. Black markets of any sort practically never ask for ID.  Thus, it is daft to think that policies that dramatically increase the black market would actually reduce youth smoking significantly.