Most of the "dumb" laws and taxes in this country are there to protect people from themselves. Government should not be in the business of protecting people from themselves. Government should protect us from others! If some idiot wants to walk off a building or smoke the Government should stay out of the way unless the act harms another (physically, not emotionally).

I'm sure glad I work four months a year to pay taxes to pay for things like the cigarette police busting those naughty people with illegal tobacco.

marijuana --take a trip and never leave the farm .

Where do you people get your frame of reference? You talk like your sense of history and your idea of freedom comes from the time period in your lives when your rights allowed you to crap in your diapers with impunity.

gfan says potsmokers have rights?? comin to the team?? ;) 12 states have passed medical marijuana initiatives, with michigan soon to be #13, yet the federal govt continues to arrest LEGAL medical marijuana users. that IS NOT DEMOCRACY. call it dictatorship or whatever you want, but that is not govt by the people for the people. this is not a free country. better than all others yes, but not as good as the fore fathers intended....

Wow actually seeing people voicing their doubts about "Freedom" in the the great "U S of A" As long as the Government keeps wasting time and tax payer money attempting to seem like they are doing something for the good of all. While in actuallity being led around by big money corporations, when they should be dealing with unemployment, homeless, fuel costs, food costs.. the list goes on. Our Freedoms shrink. What this country was founded on and what generations of people died for, is slowly dieing in the smoke-screen of what "The Top Dogs" not the average person wants. Do the Senators and Governors, and all the middle polititions vote the way popular opinion is? Some do, most in my opinion do not. We have freedoms in this country yes, but if you really look at it, and compare it to other places in the world, even the "Bad Places" how far are we from a Dictatorship?

Pot smokers have the right to go to SummerFest and not get stoned enough to get caught just because there're a few cameras there.

Right On!, tinkerb45.

Free Country..We are not suppose to smoke because it causes cancer in lab rats. I don't live in a lab and haven't lived with a rat in years. I did have a very good friend, a farmer who never smoked a day in his life and no one near him smoked..he died of lung cancer. Some things you can't outrun. I don't beleive we should Have to wear seatbelts as long as motorcyclists don't have to wear helmets. Which one has more metel wrapped around them?
I hate being told what to do with the money I work hard for, or paying a fine for not using a seatbelt in a car that I paid for, or wearing a helmet on a bike I paid for. I used to use colored toilet paper, what a rebel I am. Just wait soon it will be your beer taking a hike. I just want to live in a free country too.

lol.. your so right officer.

I like to buy whole cartons of cig's. This cancer business is crazy - cig's don't cause cancer - people do. They can tax McD's but please leave BK alone! Go Whopper! (w/o tomato)

packerfan: Free country? Where have you been? Go PACK!

i read that because of the wi tavern leagues lobbying the alcohol tax hasnt gone up since 1969. its like 3.6 cents/6 pack. sick. yet tobacco goes up $.77/pack this year alone??

ktaustin: Good comment on taxing alcohol. But wait! What will the people do if they can't drink while watching or going to sports events??? Heaven forbid that they can't have their beer because they can't afford it anymore because of taxes. The government needs to realize that liquor is just as dangerous if not more so because of people driving drunk, destroying families, becoming mean when they drink, etc.

Okay I'm not understanding this. Is it the gas stations that are getting in trouble for buying cigarettes somewhere else and selling them here. Or is it the people (no buisness involoved) that are getting in trouble for going to different states or buying them on the internet. I know a couple people who buy them on the internet, yes it's cheaper. I also know truck drivers who buy cigarettes for family members in cheaper states.

I always have mixed feelings about taxing tobacco. Yes its stupid to smoke or chew, but it's also stupid to eat McDonalds frequently, or go on a ride at the county fair, or do skateboarding tricks... the point is we should have the freedom to do stupid things if it only affects ourselves. Which is why I have no problem with outlawing public smoking (2nd hand smoke). But when it comes to taxing tobacco, if that tax money is used to assist those who are suffering from smoke-induced lung cancer, then I guess I have no problem with it. If it's used for anything non-smoking related, then I have a problem with it; taxes should never be used solely to discourage stupid behavior.

Kind of makes you wonder though, if instead of prohibition they had tried heavily taxing alcohol almost a century ago. Maybe they would have reached a balance where alcohol was taxed enough that people rarely bought it, but not so much that it created crime maffias. I guess we'll never know.

Smokers are dumb.

packerfan, true, but if you sell them in Wisconsin you have to pay the taxes!

its a free country.. you should b able to buy smokes where-ever u want!!!