From: The Spectator (Australia)
Want to fight human trafficking? Ditch plain packaging
December 1, 2017, marked the five-year anniversary of mandated plain packaging of tobacco products in Australia. Despite being touted as a major victory for “public health,” the law hardly made an impact on smoking in the Down Under. In fact, according to the most recent figures, since plain packaging was introduced the number of smokers in Australia has increased for the first time in decades. And this increase was despite multiple increases in the tobacco tax as well. Lurking underneath the surface, however, are devastating unintended consequences of plain packaging that reach far beyond the Australian continent. The increase in the illicit trade of tobacco, due to plain packaging policies in Australia, the United Kingdom, France and Ireland has contributed to the astronomical rise in human trafficking in countries like the United States that don’t have plain packaging.
To the boosters of plain packaging laws, requiring standardized scary warnings on every cigarette package is a common-sense response to the public health scourge of tobacco consumption. Most cigarette users, the thinking goes, fail to thoroughly consider the consequences of their habit, and a few shocking images will help knock some sense into these derelict consumers. Former World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan has claimed, “Plain packaging reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products…It kills the glamour, which is appropriate for a product that kills people.”
