Ash calls for resources to tackle smuggling

Anti-smoking lobby says its main concern is the health impact of cheap tobacco

ASH Ireland has urged the Government to increase the resources it puts into tackling tobacco smuggling because it increases smoking rates.

The call by the anti-smoking lobby group follows a seizure of more than 120 million illegal cigarettes worth €50 million in Co Louth last Tuesday.

Nine men were arrested in connection with the haul and were freed without charge last week.

The organisation’s main concern is the health impact of the cheap tobacco. It argues that price is one of the most important deterrents to stop people, particularly children, from starting to smoke in the first place.

“If there is a lot of smuggled cigarettes being sold for €4 or €5 and people know where to get them, it is less of a deterrent to start smoking,” Dr Angie Brown, chairwoman of Ash Ireland said.

“People then buy far more of them and smoking is highly addictive, so they will smoke more and more,” she said.

Cigarette smuggling is also “huge from a health point of view”, she said. “It increases smoking prevalence, particularly in young people and this, of course, will increase the national spend on tobacco-related disease now and into the future,” she said.

However, she did not make a distinction between the health effects of counterfeit and contraband cigarettes. “All cigarettes are bad for you. The levels of carcinogens and poisons vary but all are bad for you,” she said.

Customs officers have not yet determined whether last week’s Co Louth consignment was fake or contraband.

Ash has called for increased capacity to target smuggling. The seizure highlighted the fact that Ireland is being targeted by major criminals for tobacco smuggling, it said.

The Government needs to invest in resources to prevent smuggling – such as manpower, sniffer dogs, technology and communications aids to all agencies involved, according to Dr Brown.

Such investment would pay for itself because the Government would stop losing revenue, she said.

She urged the Government to increase penalties for those involved in tobacco smuggling because Ireland was considered a safe jurisdiction for smugglers, due to soft penalties.

“We need much stronger fines as the average fines are quite paltry. People can make millions of euro and fines should be related to the amount smuggled,” Dr Brown said. Stronger deterrents were needed for smuggling because it has lethal consequences for people, she said.

She described the concern expressed by the tobacco industry as a “cynical feature” of the current tobacco smuggling debate.

“The tobacco industry is ruthlessly about profit and selling as many cigarettes to as many people as possible in as many jurisdictions as possible,” she said.

She pointed to cases in Canada and Hong Kong where the tobacco industry had been convicted of smuggling.