The article “Md. Cigarette Taxes Have Unintended Consequences” discusses the issues surrounding an excise tax on cigarettes and cigars. Authors Dee Hodges and Jeff Ferguson, highlight the negative consequences that resulted from the enforcement of “sin” tax by Maryland officials based on their normative decision that smoking is detrimental to one’s health therefore, the government must intervene to reduce the demand of tobacco products. There are a few economic ideas that figure prominently throughout the article. Firstly, tobacco has an inelastic demand. Despite Maryland’s tax imposition, consumers still consumed nearly the same number of cigarettes they normally did because tobacco is an addictive product and its demand did not vary with
