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CNBC covered the CRE press release .
Youth Use of Contraband Cigarettees Out of Control In Ontario .
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NO RESPONSE FROM FDA
— CRE Press Release —
At today’s TPSAC meeting, the committee presented its outline of topics to be reviewed in its analysis of the contraband which will result if there were a ban on menthol cigarettes.
Conspicuously absent from the outline was a review of the very substantial adverse health effects sustained from smoking contraband cigarettes.
Notwithstanding:
1. A statutory mandate to study the health effects of contraband cigarettes
2. Public comments urging the TPSAC to review the health affects of cigarettes, http://www.thecre.com/tpsac/?p=950
TPSAC continually refuses to address the subject.
Why?
Was it a simple oversight?
Has TPSAC made up their minds on the menthol issue and do not want to review any data which conflicts with their preconceived ideas?
Has FDA given TPSAC the word not to address the issue?
Are a number of the TPSAC committee members agreeable to examining the issue but have been shouted down by zealots?
CRE has no idea for the reasons behind the TPSAC action but recommends that they announce immediately that they are going to review the health effects of contraband.
Typical government…”solve” a problem by creating a problem. Maybe FDA will fund a “Contraband Czar” just like the “Food Outbreak Czar” they announced this week.
I do know that in the United Kingdom for example, that punitive taxation on cigarettes and tobacco has massively increased the market for contraband and even counterfeit cigarettes. There are many people who never buy from legitimate sources any more and so this is lost revenue for the Government. Some of the contraband is genuine product smuggled from other European countries, but there are also low quality counterfeits and Far East imports, which are likely to be much stronger than western products. There is I suspect a significant organised crime involvement in illegal tobacco smuggling. There is money in it, so they are simply filling a gap in the market..