Op-Ed: Tobacco wars – Prohibition fails again, nothing is solved, and crime gets rich

Switzerland lags far behind most wealthy nations in restricting tobacco advertising – Copyright AFP/File Fabrice COFFRINI

In Australia, a packet of 20 cigarettes can cost up to $40. That’s largely due to increased taxes. The natural result has been a massive $2 billion black market, where you can get 100 tailor-made cigarettes for $10.

It’s no contest.

It never was.

The quality of the black market tobacco is at best questionable. A lot of smokers don’t like it, but they buy it.

Meanwhile, the anti-tobacco lobby seems baffled by the increase in crime. Tobacco shops are burned down in criminal turf wars. That $2 billion is just an estimate. That’s the amount that can be identified by seizures of illegal tobacco.

Also bear in mind that this approach has made tobacco an extremely valuable source of revenue for crime. These numbers indicate that a lot of people are still smoking under the radar.

This article in the Guardian is roughly the current state of play. Not only are huge amounts of illegal tobacco continuously coming on the market, so is more nicotine. Vaping is also very noticeably on the increase. That’s another measurable demerit for the anti-smoking lobby’s claims to have reduced smoking.

Somewhat more to the point, the argument isn’t even paying attention to its own logic and even its own data.

For example:

One of the main arguments against tobacco is the sheer amount of toxic chemicals in cultivation and processing. Oxidized toxins aren’t likely to be safe. Is there any discussion of removing these chemicals? Yes, but not publicly. I’ve seen “clean” tobacco myself. It has been developed by manufacturers in the US. It has no profile in the news or on the market.

Vaping is a potentially far less toxic option for reducing toxins, assuming the vaping mix is safe and uncontaminated. When vaping first started, there were no issues with safety. As usual, when the black market got involved, it produced a cheap and nasty unregulated product, and the problems with unsafe mixes began a few years ago.

Doctors used to prescribe tobacco to reduce stress. That issue is never mentioned. At a time when people are perhaps more stressed than ever before, anti-stress options aren’t under consideration. If nicotine can reduce stress, why isn’t it being explored for the chronic stress plague affecting the world?

Tobacco is addictive, but… Yes, it is addictive, because there are natural receptors for it. Like opium mimics endorphins, tobacco closely mimics vitamin B3, aka nicotinamide or another variant, niacin. B3 is a critical regulator of brain chemistry and stress.

To give some idea of the importance of B3, the symptoms of a B3 deficiency are death and insanity. Does this need spelling out?

The usual pattern of half-ass social crusades repeats itself as usual. The exact opposite of the objective is the only visible result. None of the information about tobacco, user issues, or anything else, were under consideration.

The smart move would be to back away from this approach and stop giving money to organized crime. If you stop making tobacco so extremely valuable, they’ll move on to something that makes more money. Remove the toxins, or create safer alternatives, and the health risks must go down.

On the other hand, can you expect a society that insists on driving prices to insane levels and destroying the quality of life to get anything right?

This is the epitome of a no-brainer, and it’s just too hard.