We should beware of ceding tobacco to the criminals
From: Sydney Morning Herald | Opinion
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Against that background it has been sobering to learn that tobacco is now a target for criminal activity. Recent high-profile arrests have exposed extensive international smuggling operations. Our reports have revealed how widespread the sale of cheap, illegal tobacco has become in Australia. Tobacco excise is now so high, and cigarette production so circumscribed, that smuggling is a lucrative – and for criminals relatively safe – alternative to the illegal drug trade. This should be a serious warning to policymakers. It signals clearly, in flashing red letters, that current approaches need to be rethought.
Australia should do nothing which turns tobacco into just another illegal or quasi-illegal drug and so profits only organised crime. Instead we should use tobacco – highly addictive, of no therapeutic value, deadly in its long-term effects, requiring careful management, but still legal – as a proving ground for policies which can be used to manage other drugs which are currently illegal, so that when common sense eventually prevails, they may be decriminalised and their use minimised.
