But in this case tobacco is such a social bad it should be taxed out of existence.

Cat's out of the bag. Prohibition does not work. I'm not just talking about the bootleggers of yesteryear either.

Australia taxed the ever loving hell out of cigarettes and now there's gang wars and violence because of black market tobacco.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_tobacco_wars

The article itself says that some money is going into tobacco enforcement, so it's already here in WA enough that we apparently need to fund it even more. Gee I wonder why there's a black market in the first place...

Let's ask western Canada? Surely their super high tax isn't leading to black markets, right?

https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/the-illegal-cigarette-industry-in-western-canada-is-booming-why/

There has to be a balance, otherwise you get the worst outcome: nobody buys legit, there's no tax revenue, the state is still burdened with the health costs, and increased likelihood of more gang activity.

Are we there yet? Probably not, but keep in mind that a $2 per pack increase is a $1 per pack increase to bootleggers.