this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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My country already has a cigarette black market for cheaper imported cigs. Banning them won't work it'll only make it harder to regulate the industry.
Once you spark up it's not obvious at a glance if the cigarette is duty paid or not. There's a marked difference between a lit cigarette and no cigarette.
People will just smoke in bushes. Teens already do so they don't get caught by their parents.
So by your logic, cigarettes shouldn't be taxed at all?
Also, the way this is proposed kind of avoids the issue. People importing cigarettes already smoke, and they'll be able to in the future because this only targets people born after a certain date to deter them from starting.
No, because I don't believe a solution that captures every single black market cigarette is possible. The best solution is to heavily regulate the industry and spread accurate information about cigarettes and I'd also personally ban cigarettes in movies under a certain age rating unless essential to the character in some way such as they develop cancer later in the movie or something.