Australia

I suspect the high tax no longer has much of a harm reduction/uptake suppression utility, and that the Aus government secretly knows this, but they are hopelessly addicted to the revenue so will enact overbearing new laws to protect the income stream.

The reasonble approach is to wean nicotine users off black market product by removing the price disparities. The only way to do that is by accepting a much lower tax intake than the current arbitrary, punitive one (perhaps VAT * 1.5 or 2?)

I remember the Australian government crowing about their world-first plain packaging initiative many years ago. Talk about fighting the last war lol

Its pretty notable that almost all the smokers I know have moved over to black market imports. $2+ per cigarette means that a pack of black markets charged at $1 per cigarette make it far to tempting, and there is a big enough profit margin on them that people will bring them in to the country despite enforcement actions.

They haven't been able to stop weed, or cocaine, or heroin or ice what makes them think they will be able to stop tobacco products, especially when there is a legal version of cigarettes and e-cigarettes out there that at first glance can be hard to tell apart from the illegal ones.

I also heard that there is a tobacconist who couldn't get a license in my old home town, so they pivoted to selling novelty products above board and illegal cigarettes under the counter. The council basically posed them the option of stay in business and break the law or shut down.

Around where I live, three tobacconists have been firebombed in the last couple of years, and it seems to coincide with regulating vapes and the rise of chop chop…

I would love a politician to try explain why they were so committed to killing vaping, but ok to continue to allow the sale of cigs, given they are both a heath risk