States, in their mad rush to tax something - anything - that isn't met with massive resistance and can generate millions of dollars to fund, well, just about anything, have made tobacco their "go to" solution for all manner of financial shortfalls in recent years. "Tobacco" first and foremost means "cigarettes" - over a quarter of the adult population in the U.S. smokes them - but cigars rarely escape unscathed either. In moderation, many markets will absorb tax hikes with minimal affect. But in some places, cigars have suffered from extraordinarily high rates that exceed even the highest cigarette taxes. That's when consumers balk. And that's the point of massive tobacco taxes: do discourage smoking. Or is it?

In reality, high taxes drive sales elsewhere - over the border, to mail-order and online vendors, or underground. But regardless, the state no longer benefits from the purchases its citizens are still making anyway, and the corner cigar shop is driven out of business. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

But then neither do smoking bans that leave smokers absolutely no place to go where they can smoke. Comprehensive smoking bans are a fact of life in this era, justified as a health issue surrounding second-hand smoke. By simple majority, there are far more non-smokers than smokers, and the will of the majority - or so we're told - favors non-smoking common areas. So be it.

But why should a business that sells cigars, or a club centered around the enjoyment of cigars, where the employees smoke cigars, have to fight for that right? Non-smokers aren't in harm's way, because they would have no reason to be patronizing such an establishment. And yet, legislators continue to pass bans with no excemptions. In rare cases, like Madison, Wisconsin, excemptions are made after the fact.

With smoking bans extending further and further into previously uncharted territory - outdoor dining areas, parks, beaches - it's imperitive that legislators leave open even a small door that smokers can call their own aside from their homes. Non-smokers need not apply.

E.H., M.B.