With cigarettes still a legal drug, and less people smoking in North America, tobacco farmers are finding it hard to make ends meet.
With pending budget cuts in the US, and Canadian farmers looking for buyouts, tobacco isn't the "cash crop" it used to be.
Not like marijuana, where profits are high, and getting higher by the day. Grow-ops are spreading like wildfire across North America, and show no end in sight.
Marijuana farmers are fortunate that the harder the government tries to shut them down, everything they do only raises the sale price, making any venture a profitable one.
So why only help the pot farmer? Let's lend a helping hand to the poor tobacco farmer as well.
I propose a continental ban on all tobacco related items, and place it under the same category as pot, cocaine and heroin.
It's not like people are going to stop, if cancer and emphysema didn't do it, nothing will.
Prices would skyrocket, and the farmers would enjoy a very profitable season. All this without any taxpayer money.....except the $19 Billion extra we would have to sink into the DEA to police them.
Some "crazy" people may say that the government has no right to police what is essentially a victimless crime, but that's never stopped them before.
In fact, with mergers in the alcohol world, and falling prices for some California wines, maybe we should extend our prohibition to include alcohol as well?
Using marijuana as an example, making something illegal doesn't make it go away, it just makes it more expensive, which in turns makes it more profitable.