Don’t punish smokers who started long ago

DEAR News Of The Area,

I HAVE never been a smoker and I grew up in a time when smoking was allowed on buses, airplanes, and inside public buildings. I have congratulated the various public health initiatives that have driven smoking out of public spaces, the banning of tobacco advertising, the shunning of tobacco sponsorship, increased taxes on tobacco products, and the introduction of plain packaging.

All of these measures have driven smoking rates down to record low levels and, importantly, discouraged young people from taking up the habit. This has enormous public health benefits. The taxes collected have never been enough to pay for the cost to the public health system, which accrues mostly many decades later.

However, we now have a situation where organised crime now runs the majority of illicit tobacco sales and distribution and does not pay tax.

The Big Tobacco industry has a history of smuggling tobacco into countries to create a market, then pressuring the government to allow legal sales so that they can tax it, in order to create and expand their markets. I have no evidence that Big Tobacco is doing this in Australia at the moment but I would not be surprised if this was proven to be the case. All those illegal cigarettes are all manufactured by machines and packaged by machines and the criminals must source the tobacco from somewhere.

Reducing the taxes will not make a dent in the illegal trade at this point. This would play into the hands of the tobacco industry, which openly calls for this course of action. Unsurprisingly.

The other point to consider is that nicotine is an extremely addictive drug. I have a relative who found it easier to give up a 20-year heroin addiction than to give up cigarettes. High taxes on tobacco to discourage younger people from taking up the habit are effective but the situation with older people is quite different.

It is one thing to chastise a teenager for smoking, but quite inappropriate to criticise someone who has been a nicotine addict for over fifty years. They have heard it all before and it is disrespectful to patronise them. Sometimes, it takes a heart attack to force them to change. Or the fact that they are denied necessary surgery because they are a smoker.

The current rise in illegal tobacco is due in large part due to a lack of law enforcement. A law is useless if it is not enforced. Police should have a focused campaign to close all the illegal outlets and prosecute all those involved.

Along with this we should consider a scheme whereby long time smoking addicts can purchase legal cigarettes with minimal tax so that we do not have pensioners being forced into buying from criminal gangs. Perhaps a special smokers licence to allow access to cheaper cigarettes for people with a long term addiction.

We do not want our children to take up or continue smoking but it is unnecessary to persecute old age pensioners with high tobacco taxes for an addiction that was not discouraged when they started.

Regards,

Peter SOBEY,

Valla.