Its pretty notable that almost all the smokers I know have moved over to black market imports. $2+ per cigarette means that a pack of black markets charged at $1 per cigarette make it far to tempting, and there is a big enough profit margin on them that people will bring them in to the country despite enforcement actions.
They haven’t been able to stop weed, or cocaine, or heroin or ice what makes them think they will be able to stop tobacco products, especially when there is a legal version of cigarettes and e-cigarettes out there that at first glance can be hard to tell apart from the illegal ones.
I also heard that there is a tobacconist who couldn’t get a license in my old home town, so they pivoted to selling novelty products above board and illegal cigarettes under the counter. The council basically posed them the option of stay in business and break the law or shut down.
Tregetour@lemdro.id 1 day ago
I suspect the high tax no longer has much of a harm reduction/uptake suppression utility, and that the Aus government secretly knows this, but they are hopelessly addicted to the revenue so will enact overbearing new laws to protect the income stream.
Aussieiuszko@aussie.zone 6 hours ago
They should just go ahead and make it illegal at this point.
Ilandar@lemmy.today 23 hours ago
Well that depends…at what point is the revenue stream under threat because of the significant price disparity? My understanding is that it has dropped significantly, which one would imagine is a cause for concern if revenue is a key consideration.