Smokers Turn to Black Market because Quitting Products Too Expensive | The Business | ABC NEWS

Jul 21, 2025 | The consumption of illicit tobacco is growing, as more tobacconists pop up across the country, and revenue is lost from the legal excise. It's causing debate between politicians as experts warn Australia needs to crack down on the trade. In 2023, it was estimated that illegal tobacco consumption may account for close to 30 per cent of the total tobacco market in Australia, although these estimates by the legal tobacco industry are disputed. And despite sectors of government agreeing Australia has a problem with the illegal trade, there's mixed messaging about how to tackle the problem. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ruled out lowering the tax excise on cigarettes, which will rise again in September, while NSW Premier Chris Minns has a different view and thinks the tax should be reduced. University of Sydney public health professor Becky Freeman says if the government was to lower the tobacco excise, it would send the wrong message. Instead, she thinks the number of outlets that sell tobacco products should be reduced.

As of July 1, NSW and Victoria introduced tobacco licensing laws, giving businesses until October and February respectively to apply for a licence to sell cigarettes. Experts say more needs to done to tackle the growing trade.


Australian politicians are as short-sighted and clueless as European politicians! Can’t they see the damage they are doing to people’s health by encouraging them to smoke black market cigarettes and tobacco because of cost? The quality of the tobacco on the black market is unregulated and the long-term health consequences of smoking it is likely to be be far worse than if they were able to afford to smoke government-regulated, quality-controlled tobacco and cigarettes manufactured at home. Moreover, the more expensive governments make tobacco products, the more likely people are to find alternative sources of enjoyment and pleasure. And that is precisely what is happening nowadays here in the West.

The best way to bring down smoking rates without causing resentment and distortions in the market is through information of the health dangers associated with smoking tobacco, not through extortionate taxation and government coercion. In any case, people do far worse things than enjoy the smoking of a cigarette.

We don’t live in utopia; rather, we live in the real world. And in the real world, people do all sorts of things, and consume all sorts of products, which are not conducive to perfect health. As Margaret Thatcher said: “The desire to achieve grand utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom.” – © Mark Alexander

Michael Lambert: Why Do People Risk Everything to Cross the Channel?

July 5, 2025

Of course the UK is flooded with illicit, cheap cigarettes from abroad. Successive governments on the right and the left have increased the tax on cigarettes so much and have made them so expensive that many people cannot afford to pay the ludicrous prices charged in regular shops for government-approved cigarettes. The taxation on cigarettes is out of all proportion to the value of the packet of cigarettes sold, out of all proportion to the pleasure derived therefrom, and out of all proportion to the wages and salaries earned by normal working people.

The government is never going to get to grips with this problem whilst they insist on taxing smokers to the hilt. Smokers WILL get their smokes one way or the other. No do-gooding government is going to stop them. And if they don’t get their pleasure from smoking, they will get their pleasure some other source, from some other substance.

This is precisely what has happened in Australia. Successive Australian governments have raised the prices of cigarettes so much that some sources say that 25% of all cigarettes sold in the country are illicit. In Melbourne, there is even gang warfare over illicit cigarettes! This is what happens when politicians are bereft of common sense! Politics is the art of the possible. Politicians should never forget that! This is Politics 101.

When I quit smoking back in April 2022, the price of a packet of Marlboro Reds in the UK was precisely £12.50. As I write this today, the same shop is selling them for £16.75! On top of that, the quality of cigarettes—all cigarettes sold in the UK—is poor indeed. Nothing like the quality of cigarettes sold in the country when I started smoking all those years ago.

This country will never get a handle on the influx of illicit cigarettes whilst they try and deprive hard-working people of all pleasures. And all in the name of improved health. Yes, of course smoking is not particularly healthy. But so are many other things consumed and enjoyed; moreover, the fact is, people’s health has not improved anyway. Arguably, it is far, far worse. Cardiovascular disease today, type 2 diabetes today, and obesity today are all much worse than they ever were when people enjoyed a cigarette. So, politicians, put that in your pipes and smoke it! Mull that over well!

Puritanism never did anyone any good! Read about the fiasco in the States during the Prohibition, when they tried to ban the drinking of alcohol there. And, according to some sources, the consumption of spirits and wine during the Prohibition years exceeded pre-Prohibition levels. That didn't bring Americans much virtue, did it? – © Mark Alexander

Smoking

MARK ALEXANDER: The war on smoking and smokers is being waged continuously. One would be forgiven for concluding that our useless politicians have nothing better or more important to think about or concern themselves with. Would that we had politicians like Helmut Schmidt or Winston Churchill today!

This war on smoking is regrettable, and one day these stupid politicians will come to see the folly of their ways. Making cigarettes so expensive and making it impossible to smoke everywhere is the most ridiculous of things. Even the French have succumbed to this stupidity! And the heavy-smoking Germans, too!

Why do I say these things? It is simple. Anyone who has ever worked with young people will know that young people will always seek out their pleasures and kicks. If they cannot get their kicks one way, they will seek them out some other way. This is one of the hallmarks of youth. Is there any wonder that we now have so many young people hooked on e-cigarettes? Is there any wonder that we now have so many people hooked on ketamine? Is there any wonder why we now have so many young people hooked on cocaine, or on marijuana? Banning cigarettes, Sir Keir, is not going to make young people hale and healthy and/or virtuous. What it will do is drive cigarette smoking underground and it will push young people into the arms of drug dealers. How stupid politicians these days are! How naïve!

On a positive note, I quit smoking more than three years ago. In fact, the last cigarette I smoked was the day after my birthday, on April 10th 2022. My quitting has been extremely successful, but my waistline has expanded accordingly.

My advice is this: Giving up smoking is easier than you think. If I can do it, you can too. I had been a pack-a-day smoker. (And I loved every one of the cigarettes I smoked throughout my life.) Smoking fine cigarettes is one of life’s great pleasures. The people who complain about smoking and smokers are a PITA! When it comes to being cool and sexy, nothing compares to a cigarette.

If you want to give up smoking, fear not, it will be easier than you think. Though you do need determination. But expect to put on weight.

© Mark Alexander
All Rights Reserved

Smoking - Anatomy of an Addiction Industry | DW Documentary | Reupload

Dec 13, 2024 | Smoking has an image problem, because everyone knows: it can kill you. That’s why tobacco multinationals are increasingly focused on e-cigarettes, enticing consumers with bright colors and fruity flavors. The target group: young people.

The World Health Organization says smoking results in the death of eight million people every year. That’s one reason why you’ll now often hear tobacco companies promoting the switch to e-cigarettes, with claims that these are less harmful to our health. It’s first and foremost young people who believe the industry’s promises, thereby taking the first step on the road to addiction. After all, nicotine is an addictive substance. And although it may taste better than tobacco, puffing on a vape is still going to get you hooked in precisely the same way as smoking a regular cigarette. The film investigates the cynicism of an industry that not only accepts this, but also deliberately aims for it.

Big Nicotine - Anatomy of an Addiction Industry /TEMPS PRESENT / Laurent Burkhalter & Philippe Mach / 2024 / RTS Radio television Suisse

The Allure of Smoking Rises Again

THE ATLANTIC: The cool factor of cigarettes has proved hard to shake.

The allure of smoking has proved hard to stamp out. Despite the fact that cigarette use is at an 80-year-low in America, smoking has, unfortunately, become cool again. At the New York Fashion Week show in February, some models accessorized their runway outfits with a cigarette. A clip of the TikTok influencer Addison Rae smoking two cigarettes is cut into her latest music video, which has more than 4 million views. The pop star Charli XCX, who was recently gifted a bouquet of cigarettes for her birthday, sparked one during her performance in Manchester last month, and has said that her brat starter pack would include “a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra.”

All of this is despite the fact that anyone born after 1964, when the surgeon general pronounced that smoking causes cancer, should know the habit is just about the worst thing you can do if you want to live a long, healthy life. And many people grasped that much earlier: The Atlantic contributor James Parton wrote back in 1868 that “it does not pay to smoke.” When he quit tobacco, he had fewer headaches, enjoyed exercise more, and held a “better opinion of myself” (though I admit that his prescribed method for kicking the habit—drinking a “good stiff glass of whiskey and water” instead of reaching for a pipe—hasn’t held up very well). » | Nicholas Florko | Thursday, December 5, 2024

Related video – Tucker's take (and mine) here.

Anatomy of an Addiction Industry | DW Documentary

Dec 13, 2024 | Smoking has an image problem, because everyone knows: it can kill you. That’s why tobacco multinationals are increasingly focused on e-cigarettes, enticing consumers with bright colors and fruity flavors. The target group: young people.

The World Health Organization says smoking results in the death of eight million people every year. That’s one reason why you’ll now often hear tobacco companies promoting the switch to e-cigarettes, with claims that these are less harmful to our health. It’s first and foremost young people who believe the industry’s promises, thereby taking the first step on the road to addiction. After all, nicotine is an addictive substance. And although it may taste better than tobacco, puffing on a vape is still going to get you hooked in precisely the same way as smoking a regular cigarette. The film investigates the cynicism of an industry that not only accepts this, but also deliberately aims for it.


The war on smoking and smokers continues unabated! – © Mark Alexander

The Origins of Tobacco - Addicted to Pleasure - BBC

Aug 29, 2015 | Brian Cox explains how Christopher Columbus was involved in the beginnings of tobacco.

'Pack of Cigs and a Bic Lighter': Why Are Celebs Glamorising Smoking Again?

Christian Cowan's show at New York fashion week in February featured models smoking on the runway | GETTY IMAGES
BBC: rat summer might be over as we grapple with how dark it is at 4pm, but the concept of being a brat – “pack of cigs and a Bic lighter”, according to the singer Charli XCX – lives on.

There's Rosalia gifting Charli XCX a bouquet of cigarettes on her birthday, Addison Rae smoking not one but two at the same time in her music video Aquamarine, and the actor Paul Mescal saying he refused to give up smoking when getting into shape for Gladiator II.

…

Despite this, singers, actors and influencers seem to be bringing smoking back into vogue - quite literally, with cigarettes making a return as on the New York Fashion Week runways earlier this year as accessories.

So, why are cigarettes being glamorised again?

Lucy, a 20-year-old university student, says she took up smoking recently because "it's just what everyone does".

Almost all her friends also smoke and she says it's more than just a habit, it's an aesthetic.

"I definitely think everyone trying to be brat has influenced people to start smoking because Charli herself says you have to have a pack of cigs if you really want to embody the vibe." » | Yasmin Rufo, BBC News | Sunday, November 3, 2024

EAT your HEARTS OUT Keir Starmer and Chris Whitty! Smoking is making a comeback! None too soon, either! As unhealthy as smoking might be, it is infinitely healthier than the alternatives of drugs. And far healthier than those unhealthy and uncool vapes, too. And then there's all the rest of the poisons that people injest today — just for kicks. People will always look for kicks, especially the young.

Starmer, you haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of outlawing smoking. Especially for the young. Smoking is pleasurable, cool, sexy, and alluring. After all, who wants to watch a love story from Hollywood with the main characters sharing a vape? It doesn't quite cut it, does it?

In spite of any laws that might be passed in Parliement, smoking will not be killed off. Smoking cigarettes will live on long after our do-gooding politicians will be kicking up daisies! Long live pleasure! Long live freedom! Long live the right to choose! — © Mark Alexander

Related stuff here.

Price of Packet of Cigarettes to Rise to £16.78 from 6pm TONIGHT as Rachel Reeves Hikes Tobacco Tax in Budget

THE SUN: THE price of a pack of cigarettes will have risen by 90p after a hike was confirmed in the government's Autumn Statement.

On Wednesday in the House of Common, Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed a range of plans relating to tax rises, benefits and pension payments.

The Chancellor said that tobacco duty would increase by the standard Retail Price Index (RPI) - a measure of inflation - plus 2%.

The government used the RPI rate of 3.65%, which is the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecast for the inflation rate in quarter two of 2025.

It means the cost of a 20 pack will rise by 5.65% - or 90p - at 6pm this evening.

The average price of a 20-pack of cigarettes in September was £15.88, according to the ONS - and it will rise to £16.78 tonight. » | Olivier Marshall, Senior Consumer Reporter | Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Chesterfield Cigarettes in World War II | Tobaccoland at War | Industrial Film

Jan 21, 2017 | Chesterfield Cigarettes presents “Tobaccoland USA at War,” a black-and-white circa 1943 “new kind of pictorial adventure” examining tobacco production in such states as Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas — areas that have made “Chesterfield synonymous with American smoking pleasure.” We visit the offices of Liggett & Myers Tobacco, Inc. (Chesterfield’s parent company) in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina starting at mark 01:04 and view production lines and tobacco fields, meeting some of the “fine families” who grow the product. We watch as families work together in the fields (mark 02:25) and later processed. There’s a look inside a farm’s curing barn starting at mark 03:21where the product is later sold at auction — a process shown starting at mark 04:40. The film continues as the plant undergoes a “new” and “scientific” process, shown starting at mark 06:37, which restores to the tobacco leaves the precise amount of moisture needed for a perfect flavor. Eventually, the final product — Chesterfield cigarettes — roll off an assembly line at mark 08:44.

Released during World War II, the promotional film makes note that Chesterfield cigarettes are enjoyed by “fighting men” around the world and is “one of the few comforts” of home as we see a filmed scene of soldiers in a bunker pausing for a smoke (mark 09:25). Starting at mark 09:55 the film visits “the fighting fronts” and a group of US Marines in combat at land and at sea, followed by scenes aboard a US Coast Guard vessel (mark 11:23) and US Navy ship (mark 12:27), as well as the Merchant Marines. Through various battle scenes, the narrator reminds the viewer that American servicemen gain its strength not only from its weaponry but also from support from the home front. As scenes from the Army Air Force fill the screen starting at mark 14:56, the narrator says that “with each pounding the enemy is weakened” And while fathers and sons are away from home, families at home continue to tend to the farms — and the tobacco crops — to continue to meet the demand for Chesterfied’s. …


Not so much an ad, more a propaganda film really! 😊 Don’t be a wussy! Smoke a Chesterfield! Light up! Inhale deeply! Wait a few seconds! Exhale! Oh, the pleasure! 😊 – © Mark Alexander

Biden Bans Menthol Cigarettes

Aug 12, 2024 | Brian from Windy City Cigars sits down, and talks about the upcoming Menthol Ban coming in 2024. The Biden Administration is pushing for the ban of menthol cigarettes and tobacco and flavored cigars if the ban goes through it may cause millions of job losses due to the menthol ban.

You can support smokers’ rights in the UK here.

WIKIPEDIA: List of smoking bans in the United States »

BEWARE! The do-gooding control freaks are trying to take over everywhere. Remember: Smokers have rights, too! – © Mark Alexander

How Tobacco Helped Soldiers in World War 2

Jun 1, 2023 | Brian from Windy City Cigars sits down and discusses how important cigarettes were in World War 2 and the brand names they smoked.

This is a very interesting and informative video on soldiers smoking in war zones. Führer Starmer should watch it to educate himself before he tries to pass that ridiculous, stupid generational smoking ban through Parliament. It is totally unreasonable to expect our young men to go to war to fight for us without allowing them a few pleasures on the battlefield. A smoke is the least we can offer a soldier in such a dangerous situation. And please don’t be so stupid as to talk of the health dangers of smoking! Possibly dying in fifty years’ time from the health dangers of smoking is totally and utterly irrelevant when a man is in a battlefield and can be killed at any moment. – © Mark Alexander

Black Market Tobacco Floods Australian Market | Investigations | SBS The Feed

Mar 3, 2016 | As cigarette prices have risen, illegal tobacco or chop-chop is being imported into the country in increasing amounts. The Feed went undercover with Customs to see how hard it was to buy.

I’ll say nothing. I think you will know what I think of this sh**! – © Mark Alexander

Make Smoking Cool Again! It Really Is Anyway

The pleasure of smoking is undeniable. Take that pleasure away from people and it will be replaced by other pleasures which will almost certainly, in the long-run, prove to be even more injurious to health. Smoking is one of life’s true pleasures. For Christ’s sake, stop this war on smoking! Say 'NO' to this Neo-puritanical nonsense! – © Mark Alexander
With thanks to Pinterest for this delightful image.

Mark Littlewood in Conversation with Simon Clark

May 28, 2019 | On 16th May 2019, to mark the 40th anniversary of the smokers' group FOREST (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco), Mark Littlewood, director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, spoke to Forest director Simon Clark.

This country has gone completely over-the-top with its anti-smoking legislation. The war on smoking and smokers shows no sign of coming to an end, either. Smoking has become the bête noire of our day. Fact is, however, some people do far worse things than smoke a cigarette. Yet the powers-that-be do little about those questionable and unhealthy activities. Yet on smokers, it's open season. I write as an ex-smoker. But when I smoked, I smoked for pleasure and for no other reason. The problem today, though, is that trying to enjoy a cigarette has been made so difficult for people that much of the pleasure has been taken out of the pleasurable habit. There is also no rhyme – © Mark Alexander or reason in the taxes placed on cigarettes. Smokers are easy targets for the taxman. – © Mark Alexander

Smoking Pleasure / Rauchvergnügen / Plaisir de fumer

Der Hochgenuß des Qualmens / Le plaisir de fumer une cigarette / The pleasure of smoking a cigarette
Many thanks to Pinterest for this delightful photo.

ForestOnline : Mark Littlewood In Conversation With Simon Clark

May 28, 2019 | On 16th May 2019, to mark the 40th anniversary of the smokers' group FOREST (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco), Mark Littlewood, director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, spoke to Forest director Simon Clark

Passive smoking is a load of nonsense! — © Mark Alexander

"Give Adults Freedom of Choice" - The Taxpayers Alliance Talks with Simon Clark

Nov 3, 2023 | Simon Clark, director of smokers' rights group Forest, joins us for this episode of TPA Talks. Reflecting on the upcoming smoking ban after decades of creeping regulation, Simon explains how the war on smokers and the rise of the nanny state have worrying implications for us all - smokers or not

I have been a lifelong Conservative voter, too. But I, like Simon Clark, will never vote for the party again if this ridiculous smoking ban really would be pushed through Parliament. Now, with an election imminent and the Conservatives unlikely to win, the Labour Party is likely to take up this ridiculous and illiberal policy proposal. I speak as an ex-smoker. I gave up smoking in April 2022. I used to smoke twenty cigarettes a day which, back in the day, used to be considered normal, not heavy. Heavy smoking used to be 40 - 60 cigarettes a day! However, with the price of a packet of Marlboro Reds, my cigarettes of choice, brushing £16, it became far too expensive to continue with the habit. So, I gave up. Bang went one of the main pleasures in my life! And I resent that. I object to this Conservative government taking older people's pleasures away from them. I really do. This sort of thing is expected from a more left-wing, socialist government, but not the Tories. — © Mark Alexander

This is one VERY IMPORTANT REASON why I am so against governments interfering with people’s smoking rights. These bans will not stop at smoking. I have said it all along. Now here comes the evidence! Left-wing do-gooders are on the warpath:

Extend success of UK sugar tax to cakes, biscuits and chocolate, experts urge: Exclusive: Co-author of analysis for WHO calls on government to control the food industry rather than being subservient to it »

Something for the Killjoys of This World!

Sunak comes immediately to mind!
Many thanks to Elis Cliffe on Pinterest for this priceless image!
I have nearly lost my life on three separate occasions. I am being serious. I have survived each misadventure and have fully recovered from everything. I can assure you that after such experiences, one has a very, very different take on the dangers of smoking. People who go on about the dangers of smoking come over to me as snowflakes. And as for people caring about secondhand smoke – what a joke! Don't make me laugh! I was once run over by an oncoming car, smashing the man's windscreen! Worrying about the dangers of smoking is rather pathetic by comparison with such an experience. People who worry about such trivialities need to get out a bit more; they need to start living! Even though I no longer smoke (though I could always decide to go back to smoking), smokers are very welcome on this website. They are not welcome in so many places these days, I know. But rest assured, you ARE welcome here. Very welcome, in fact. This website is a website for grown-ups. – © Mark Alexander

Make Smoking Cool Again! Especially with a Large Glass of Wine. | #shorts

The New Puritans are scraping fun from our lives! Katie Hopkins thinks these prudes should naff off (Katie’s vocabulary is rather more colourful!)
WARNING! Very strong language is used by Katie in this short!