Raising cigarette tax will damage police, community relationships

Lawmakers in Washington are currently considering doubling the tax on legal, adult sales of cigarettes, and increasing taxes on other adult tobacco products, like dip, by over 1,677%. As a former police captain in the Montgomery County Police Department, I can say without hesitation that increasing taxes on these products will contribute to the already stressed relationship police have with our most vulnerable communities. Maryland’s congressional delegation should oppose this measure.

A large tax hike will shift the market to unlicensed and unregulated supply networks that traffic in tobacco purchased in other states, transported to Maryland and sold to consumers. Maryland is already an epicenter of cigarette smuggling activity in the I-95 corridor, with millions of dollars in products trafficked through the state annually. The existing illicit marketplace is primed and ready to absorb demand that a tax raise will create.

Under both state and federal law, the sale of products outside of the licensed chain of distribution is a felony. A tax hike will leave hundreds of thousands of adult tobacco consumers in Maryland bearing the economic and legal burden, and those who are already struggling to make ends meet will resort to illicit markets.

This is precisely what happened when the Federal Excise Tax was doubled in 2009. In Maryland, the sale of “loose” cigarettes — single cigarettes sold in the illicit market — increased. A study found that “there may be unintended consequences of these policy approaches, especially in low SES [socioeconomic] communities, that have not been adequately addressed. These include informal economic practices, such as street sales, that can be understood as survival strategies used by people who are somehow excluded from the more formal economic sector.”

We must only be reminded of the death of Eric Garner in New York, who was selling loose cigarettes when approached by police, to raise the specter of the unintentional consequence of increased police interactions especially in the Black community, should there be a rise in the tobacco tax.

It took years and many resources to address the illicit markets that thrived in the wake of the 2009 tax. Those issues have not gone away, and they include people of color being targeted for the use of these legal products. Only months ago, police in Ocean City used what appeared to be excessive force against a young Black man for using an e-cigarette. It caused a community uproar. At the time, Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones tweeted, the “video from this weekend in Ocean City is deeply disturbing. Vaping on the Boardwalk is not a criminal offense. Black and brown children should not be Tased while their hands are up.” But as the NAACP Maryland State Conference noted, this “incident along with other videos show a consistent pattern of assaults on African Americans.”

Finally, taxpayers should also be concerned. Contraband sale means a loss to Maryland’s treasury, which is badly needed money for our state. In addition, law enforcement organizations will need even more resources to address the illicit market that will burgeon in the wake of a tax increase.

We all share the responsibility of reducing smoking. In Maryland, we know there are much better strategies to use, such as enforcing minimum age laws, educating adult smokers and helping smokers access alternatives. Because of these measures, youth smoking is at historic lows.

I founded The Black Police Experience to educate the community and law enforcement on the connection between race and policing. That includes the unintended consequences of acts such as menthol bans and raising taxes on cigarettes.

Maryland lawmakers should do everything possible to remove this massive tax increase from the budget reconciliation bill and avoid the harmful consequences of tax hikes. History shows that prohibition does not work, and excessive tax hikes will only create more problems, such as illegal markets and disparate contact between police and communities of color.

Sonia Pruitt (spruitt@therealbpx.com) retired following a 28-year tenure with the Montgomery County Police Department, where she was the first and only Black woman to attain the rank of captain. Since retiring from policing, she has served as an associate professor of Criminal Justice at Montgomery College and founded The Black Police Experience.