Taxes are part of the American tableau, and aren't going away anytime soon, if ever. The bottom line is that the government has to collect taxes from its population in order to, in theory, promote the general welfare of its citizens. While there are all sorts of taxes in America, one of the more unique ones, is a tax on sin, things such as alcohol, cigarettes, and now, in a few select jurisdictions, soda.
First things being first, in order for a new tax to be given the moniker of a "sin tax" the item being taxed must be fairly conclusively considered by experts to be harmful to the body and/or to the mind. Soda is a product that has no nutritional value, and instead uses sugar, or sugar substitutes, amongst other flavorings and additives to give the drink a pleasing and satisfying taste to one's palate. While soda may taste good, or why else would someone drink it, that doesn't mean that it is good for the body, and it certainly isn't necessary for the body. The negatives of too much soda drinking have been strongly linked to obesity, tooth decay, bad cholesterol, and diabetes, mainly because sugar as used in soda, is unhealthy for the body.
However, just because soda is bad for you, doesn't mean that the government should tax it, as there are many other items that aren't good for one's body, either. What makes soda a particularly good target to tax, though, is the fact that soda is quite easy to substitute with something far more beneficial, which is, both plentiful and healthy, and that substance is water. Basically, water is an essential ingredient for anybody's healthy body, and the access to good, clean water should be a fundamental priority of all communities and fortunately that is typically the case.
Currently, the soda sin tax is in its infancy, to which, the biggest purveyors of soda are fighting it tooth and nail, as is their wont. As long as the soda sin tax, is limited to a few communities or cities, it is difficult to gauge the tax impact, good or bad, mainly because it is so easy to work around it, in the sense of finding supply outside of the areas in which the tax has been imposed. This means, that the ultimate push on the soda sin tax, must not only be State wide, but also nationally imposed, and until such time as that is done, it really won't be known as to whether the imposing of such a tax has impacted the consumption of soda within America.
The bottom line in regards to sin taxes, is that the product, itself, will still be legal, and for those that thereby consume it, the product will still be there, with the only real significant difference, being that an additional tax has been imposed, to which the consumer need only make a very basic decision, as to whether that tax makes a big enough difference to them in regards to purchasing that item. The impact to the consumer will be fairly minor, as there are plenty of valid substitutes to sugar drinks; it will also make a difference to governmental tax authorities, as the successful implementation of this new sin tax will provide a fairly easy and straightforward increase in tax revenues without an undue burden upon the population, and their free choice.