Buy smokes … lose your car

Today, Department of Revenue agents will begin targeting Tennessee motorists who are spotted buying “large quantities of cigarettes in border states” – and naturally, they will be charging them with a crime and in some instances also seizing their cars.

Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce. But state Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr says his department is simply doing its job, enforcing a valid state law while protecting Tennessee retailers who properly pay state taxes.

Surely, with the manpower available, there are more important issues that these agents could be dealing with.  More importantly, when we laugh collectively at the ridiculous intrusions of the nanny state, let’s remember where it leads. What began as incrementally trivial intrusions can now mean losing your car or being banned from smoking in your own home.