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Cigarette taxes in and of themselves are certainly fair, just as are sales taxes, gasoline taxes, alcohol taxes, real estate taxes, and a slew of others. Face it: Governments at every level depend on taxes to stay in business, and that's how it's been done for centuries. But just the same; there are fair taxes and unfair taxes. In regard to the amount of tax delegated to cigarettes, it becomes decidedly unfair. In fact, it is obscenely unfair. How so?

For starters, smoking is blamed for practically every known medical ailment that exists. In this era of animosity against the 60 million smokers within the United States, you can bet that some rabid anti-tobacco fanatic will concoct a "study" that links smoking with the current Swine Flu epidemic. Smoking is said to cost billions of dollars in health care costs, shorten life expectancy, and cause lost productivity. The Centers for Disease Control claims over 450,000 deaths per year occur as a result of smoking. Yet this is all speculative at best, for these numbers are completely computer-generated. In addition, deaths in smokers from just about any kind of cancer, heart disease, or stroke will automatically be recorded as "smoking-related." It doesn't matter if any of these conditions were hereditary or helped along by other factors. If you currently smoke or even used to smoke, then smoking is what caused your death; period. THIS is why the number of attributed deaths hovers near half a million. In reality, deaths directly caused by smoking probably number less than half of this figure.

Similarly, if a smoker is admitted to a hospital with any condition that requires medical attention, it is likewise assumed that smoking caused it. Again, no questions asked.

As for life expectancy, most of us will live 75-80 years whether we smoke or not. Furthermore, there is more than a sufficient amount of anecdotal evidence to support this statement. Most lifetime smokers diagnosed with lung cancer; as an example, are past the age of 70 years. Furthermore, only 1 smoker out of 10-15 will ever contract the disease in the first place!

Nevertheless, cigarette taxes have jumped into the stratosphere. Those who impose these ridiculously high penalties for indulging in tobacco want it both ways as well. On one hand, the high taxes are said to discourage those from smoking. Indeed, there is no question that our government is slowly attempting to eradicate this pastime altogether. This is clearly demonstrated with public bans, which

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