I don't understand why this was floated as a constitutional amendment instead of a legislative act. If you are one of the two people who have read my past blog entries, then you know I set a higher bar for constitutional amendment initiatives than I do for legislative initiatives. It seems to me that a specific tax like this is not something that belongs in a constitution.

Now, I do understand their incentive; by putting it in the constitution, the Legislature can't tweak it on its own. It requires another constitutional amendment to change it later. However, that's a sucky reason to make something a constitutional amendment.

The ads from the cigarette companies trying to kill this measure are slimy and filled with misdirection and falsehoods, but if we're going to criticize them for it, I think we should demand a similar level of honesty from those in favor.