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Holyrood opinion poll

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Action on illicit cigarette sales urged Print E-mail
Monday, 03 March 2008

ASH Scotland’s chief executive Sheila Duffy today said more action needs to be taken to tackle smuggled cigarette sales, which divert £2.9bn in revenues from the UK Treasury. 

Publishing an ASH Scotland briefing paper on tobacco smuggling Duffy said: "Often those supplying counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes are viewed as ‘Robin Hood’ type figures but this is an image we must get away from as both the large scale smuggling of legal cigarettes and the counterfeit trade are linked with organised crime.

"When you buy counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes you are helping to support organised criminal gangs who may also be involved in the trafficking of people, of illicit goods such as drugs and arms, and possibly terrorism."

Duffy added that organised gangs tended to deliberately target low income communities where smoking prevalence is highest, but so is the rate of ill health caused by tobacco.

"Illicit cigarette sales undermine the public health messages and smoking cessation services that are funded through the NHS. Therefore all efforts that are made to prevent young people starting to smoke, help others to quit, and to stay quit are being undermined by the influx of cheaper cigarettes – counterfeit or smuggled.

"The UK Treasury is also deprived of almost £3 billion every year in taxation. This is money that should be spent on our public services not going into the pockets of organised criminal gangs."

Duffy called for more funding for HM Revenues and Customs to increase enforcement activity to tackle tobacco smuggling. She also encouraged the UK gGovernment to sign up to the new Protocol on the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.
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