Where There's Cigarette Taxes, There's Smuggling

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In a 2010 update to their 2008 study "Cigarette Taxes and Smuggling," Michael LaFaive and Todd Nesbit show the strong correlation between high cigarette taxes and smuggling, theft and other violent crimes.

(Note: The study covers 47 of the 48 contiguous states, omitting North Carolina as the basic source state for smuggled cigarettes.)

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Kathy Hoekstra is a communications specialist at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Mich. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the Center are properly cited.