Let’s start with a little thought experiment. We all know that Prohibition in the 1920s was a colossal failure — legally, morally and economically. But what if, as the decade began, the nation had tried something else: keeping alcohol legal but taxing it at a rate so high that most people would have to pay an exorbitant amount for a drink.
We know one thing pretty much for sure: Consumption rates would have gone down. (They did go down during Prohibition, sharply at first, then rebounding.) But what might have been the effect on the burgeoning menace of organized crime? Would bootlegging have been just as prevalent as it became under the Prohibition laws? Would there ever have been an Al Capone?
I don’t pretend to know the answer, if there is one. What I do know is that we are imposing ever-increasing taxes on most of the activities we generally place in the “sin” category — drinking, smoking, gambling and, most recently, the sale of legalized cannabis. Most of these taxes are levied at the state and local level…