$2/pack here in Michigan. Discount shops over the border in Indiana are doing land office business. Roll your owns flying off the shelves. Mafia is salivating. Yeah this makes sense. NOT

The Minnesota "health impact fee" on cigarettes is clearly nothing other than a tax, and it is a regressive tax that unfairly balances the budget on the backs of smokers. Although I am decidedly anti-tobacco, as someone who has spent 20 years in tobacco control, I nevertheless find this to be nothing more than a discriminatory and regressive tax increase for some of the less wealthy citizens in the state, for the benefit of the wealthiest citizens and corporations. This is not a public health measure in any way, shape or form and public health organizations have no business, in my opinion, supporting or praising such a measure.

I have provided a detailed commentary on this issue, as well as an explanation of why I have broken from the dogma of the anti-smoking movement to oppose the idea of using cigarette taxes to balance state budgets or raise general revenues.