Bulgaria, one of the poorest nations in the European Union is finding difficulty in recovering from the recession. Their government, though, is knowledgeable of the fact that a majority of their citizens are regular smokers, thus they plan on increasing national revenue by placing excise taxes on cigarettes. This sudden rise in price has outraged citizens and has led them to the black market in order to more affordably manage their nicotine addictions. More importantly, it has effectively decreased the revenue of the government. Certainly, this proves that their government should simply let the “invisible hand” guide their economy out of the recession as their efforts have only placed another threat to legitimate cigarette distributors. It also seems unethical that the Bulgarian government is taking advantage of an addiction. It is reasonable to put excise taxes on cigarettes for the purpose of creating an incentive for citizens to stop smoking (similar to how Russia placed excise taxes on alcohol to decrease alcoholism), but Bulgaria’s increase in cigarette costs are simply due to a desire for attaining more revenue.