Several states hope to enhance their budgets with “sin taxes.” Tobacco, of course, remains a favorite whipping boy. Beating it further, efforts abound country-wide to restrict or ban outdoor smoking because it is bad for us all. To the state and local politicians who vote for such measures, this nonsmoker says: Stop pussyfooting around and enact tobacco prohibition. Now. Put your rules, ordinances and legislation where your mouths are. Do not increase taxes to “encourage” people to stop. Do not draw smoke-free moats 25 feet around playgrounds. Get on with a hardcore, legal-with-teeth patch program and force all individuals to snuff their last butt.

Small problem: Tobacco prohibition won’t work. Alcohol Prohibition was repealed because it didn’t work. We can’t even keep illicit drugs out of heavily monitored and controlled prisons. Do not despair, public servants. There is a principled, ethical stance you can take: Wash government’s hands of this tainted money.

I would take a politician seriously if she said, tobacco is bad and we’ll not raise one penny more from taxing it. Clearly, though, politicians are addicted to this dirty money, their addiction to tax revenue trumps all else. How sad: Tobacco is real bad, but, hey…it provides a good revenue stream. I find this unconscionable.

To all concerned public servants I say, stop dispensing hypocritical platitudes until you enact full-on tobacco prohibition — or eliminate tobacco taxes. The truth is: Tobacco is a government revenue goldmine, and that is more important than any concern for your health, or the ethics of disassociating from something deemed so bad.