However, the Seneca’s treaty with the federal government, signed in the early 1800s, essentially gives the Senecas soverignty in many areas plus the right to “freely trade” in tobacco and other commodities such as fur & animal hides. The federal treaty trumps any state law governing subjects covered by the treaty. The issue here is what does “freely trade” mean?

The ones being greedy here are NOT Big Tobacco or the Indians. It’s the State Governments and their insatiable demands for more revenue to support their bloated, corrupt bureacracies. The $264 BILLION settlement wasn’t enough for them. In fact they are borrowing a theme from Big Content in that they are claiming that those who purchase cigarettes from the Indians are ’stealing’ money from the state coffers. No, they aren’t stealing anything. They are choosing not to contribute further to it.

Another lie the States are telling is that their campaign is also aimed at preventing sales to underage minors. In the context of tobacco, this would be persons under the age of 18. Given that the standard practice of the retailers in question is to impose a minimum order of 5 cartons (50 packs of 20 cigarettes), how many 15 year olds are going to order 5 cartons of cigarettes at once? How many have their own credit card or checking account to pay for them to keep them a secret from mummy and daddy? And how stupid are their parents not to inquire about the box when it shows up in the mail? This is the same sort of lie (the ‘protecting children’ lie) that the MPAA proffers in regards to porn when villifying filesharing networks.

One should also note that the article omits any input by the retailers, who are the real targets of the effort. The attorney general group is acting no differently than the racketeer trying to squeeze protection money out of a local merchant by coercing their suppliers not to sell to the merchant. It is NOT the tobacco companys’ responsiblity to collect individual state sales and excise taxes.

So, the article has the same degree of accuracy as the picture accompanying it. One third.

–TurboGeek

PS: This commentary does not address the health impacts of smoking nor smoking etiquette. Comments to this post should not either.