Australians are generally good at public policy & can often state capacity their way past an administrative sticking point, but tobacco/cigarettes/cannabis provide a clear counter-example to this—they’ve been an utter disaster for public health wonk world.

About the only factlet I’d add to this excellent piece is that Australian state capacity often turns on its effective border control, something that is irrelevant when it comes to tobacco & cannabis.

The reason for this is because both grow wild in Australia. The country is astonishingly agriculturally productive. It’s easy to grow things there. One of my enduring childhood memories (I’m a Queenslander) is seeing tobacco & cannabis growing between the rows of sugarcane.

I’ve seen old ladies in country towns cheerfully watering the pretty, large-leafed, purple-flowered plant in their decorative garden borders, or farmers wondering why their working dogs were suddenly rather speedy from snacking on a different, large-leafed plant.

Ausgov, you’ve lost this one. The Laffer Curve is real, border controls don’t work when the stuff is already in the country, and now more people are taking up the cancer sticks (as the article points out).

Thank-you for Smoking!

[Piece by Binoy Kampmark, although not at his own substack, it’s for a multi-author outfit called Savage Minds.]