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"What is a black market after all? Would we deny the FDA the right to protect 100% of our children because there might be a few black market cigarettes around?"

-- President Clinton, objecting to terms in the proposed tobacco settlement which would limit the FDA's authority to regulate or ban nicotine. The settlement, as currently constituted, would allow the FDA to ban nicotine altogether as early as 2009.

This remark demonstrates either astounding naiveté regarding the effects of a widespread black market, or a cavalier disregard of those effects. Contrary to the simplistic logic of "make it illegal and it will be unavailable," history repeatedly demonstrates that Prohibition actually makes substances MORE available to those who would be denied them under a rational regulatory scheme. (See http://www.drcnet.org/1996/12-19-2.html#salvationarmy for what may be the ultimate example.)

Furthermore, one need only look to Germany's recent experience with exorbitant taxes to see what a black market in tobacco would look like. In 1995, under a system of excessively high tobacco taxes, Germany experienced over 40 "tobacco-related" murders. And, according to the Drug Policy Letter, (Summer, 1996) "Because of (tobacco) smuggling, Europe has lost between $4 and $5.3 billion in tax revenues. While watching an illegal cigarette vendor ply his trade across a street, a German police officer told an Associated Press reporter, 'We could arrest them as well, but it doesn't do any good. They just spring back up.'"

Sound familiar, Mr. President?