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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Seems it's not "All About Oil"
#1411288 - 03/26/03 10:07 AM (21 years, 8 days ago) |
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Theory on contraband tobacco unveiled in Montreal Montreal - One-quarter of all the tobacco distributed around the world is illegal contraband, according to an international researcher.
Tobacco is a political issue, says Louis Gauvin, head of the Montreal conference
According to research done by the World Health Organization expert Luk Joossens, there are millions of cigarettes traded on the black market.
Industry figures show a world-wide smuggling system is at work, he says. The American-based multi-national cigarette industry manufactures and exports about 100 billion cigarettes every year.
But statistics of worldwide imports show only 75 billion cigarettes imported, according to the U.S. department of agriculture Web site.
The difference, 25 billion cigarettes, find their way into contraband, unauthorized markets.
Joossens has been following the pattern of contraband distribution for many years.
Iraq reaps profits
He says the channels used to be through Belgium, but they were closed off, then Spain became the major route through the world, but those ports were closed to undocumented tobacco containers. Now, Iraq is the main supply line between U.S. tobacco manufacturers and the clients, says Joossens.
The irony, he says, is that Saddam Hussein's son controls Iraq's tobacco industry. So American tobacco companies are helping keep Hussein's family rich.
The losers in this pattern of commerce are the governments, deprived of tobacco taxes and the health of people who can get cigarettes more cheaply than they they would if they were controlled and taxed the legal way.
Conference continues
More than 400 experts and researchers from French-speaking countries are in Montreal this week to unite their efforts to rein in the tobacco industry.
They are gathering to share information and strategies, says Louis Gauvin, head of the conference.
The anti-tobacco movement is no longer dealing with a medical debate ? now it is a political struggle, he says.
http://montreal.cbc.ca/template/servlet/View?filename=tobacco020916
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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z@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
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I used to buy untaxed cigarettes from a guy in my apartment building. He made a killing selling them for $2 a pack.
-------------------- "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson
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GabbaDj
BTH
Registered: 04/08/01
Posts: 19,682
Loc: By The Lake
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Re: Seems it's not [Re: z@z.com]
#1411317 - 03/26/03 10:22 AM (21 years, 8 days ago) |
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The guy I bought my house from opened a bunch of cheep cigarette stores. These stores have been popping up everywhere and people will drive for miles to stock up on cartons of their favorite brand..
Well Ive talked to him alot about the business and hes told me that 90% of what is sold through them stores was bought tax free, in bulk through countries with trade agreements to get these things for cheep. By the time they get to America the cigaretts stores are saving millions on taxes alone...
I say go for it... Just like the guy at Tyco said when asked about him moving his production business to a tax free country and him buying everything across state lines to avoid paying tax, he said "I have no controll over what my millions in taxes are spent on and I dont like that it goes towards killing innocent people in other nations so Ill spend whatever it takes to avoid paying taxes to our government".
-------------------- GabbaDj FAMM.ORG
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Eidolon_Phantasm
"The Groover"
Registered: 03/24/03
Posts: 8
Loc: Canberra, Australia
Last seen: 21 years, 8 days
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Re: Seems it's not [Re: GabbaDj]
#1411745 - 03/26/03 01:44 PM (21 years, 8 days ago) |
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Taxes fund schools and hospitals, but the majority of taxes fuel the military/industrial complex (= Weapons)
-------------------- "The Wanderer Of The Subconscious Realm"
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Phred
Fred's son
Registered: 10/18/00
Posts: 12,949
Loc: Dominican Republic
Last seen: 9 years, 2 months
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Taxes fund the War on Drugs and the agencies involved in enforcing the "Patriot Act".
pinky
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z@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
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Re: Seems it's not [Re: Phred]
#1411764 - 03/26/03 01:53 PM (21 years, 8 days ago) |
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Also all of our social programs. I bet social program spending dwarfs military spending. I could look it up but I'm too lazy. So feel free to probe me wront.
-------------------- "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson
Edited by z@z.com (03/26/03 01:54 PM)
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