I think my friend has very much oversimplified the whole issue. The very first part is that legitimate manufacturers have costs that organized crime and other groups do not have when it comes to the price of cigarettes. One of them, of course, is in taxes and in other areas.
There are not a lot of $6 packs. There's a lot of $12 baggies out there, and that's probably where the profit is, far more than the $6 one. If for one minute we say to society, it's okay because you want to smoke and you want to smoke cheaply, then what's the difference between that and saying I want to have a Lamborghini so a stolen one, cheaper, is okay? And it's not okay. That's the bad message here. It's okay if you want to smoke and you smoke cheaply, but there are a whole lot of factors that end up in that $80 carton of cigarettes. We should be concerned about that kind of philosophy.