Punative cigarette taxes do more than hurt the economy. They contribute to organized crime, as smuggling takes hold. And organized crime contributes to terrorism, so say federal law enforcement officers.

Democratic legislators from the Bay Area and Los Angeles, focused on quality of life in the state, are pushing three bills that would increase cigarette costs for litter cleanup or easing deficit pressures.

But federal terrorism investigators told the The Daily Review on Thursday that such seemingly innocent legislation, further increasing high cigarette costs in California, would fuel their already tough battle against terrorist groups' lucrative smuggling operations in the United States.

The disclosure by federal law enforcement officials comes as they are beginning to crack down on illegal cigarette smugglers, who are providing a growing and crucial part of funding to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and Hezbollah.

Of course the pleasure police will point out that it is the smokers who buy bootleg cigarettes who are to blame. But you can only make the rules so unfair before people start ignoring them, and imposing 200-300% sin taxes is quite an enabler. It's hard to blame usually honest people, who resort to criminal activity to get around what they view as an unjust law that unfairly targets them.