Opinion: Smoking out the bugs in new tobacco regulations.

26 January 2023

nzherald.co.nz

Who benefits the most from cigarettes?

According to academics and ministers it isn’t retailers, despite 6000 selling them and criminals robbing outlets for them. Surely then, it must be “big tobacco,” who academics, ministers and the WHO sees as a mutant cross between the boogieman, and the KGB. 

 The dirty secret is this: The biggest winner from the sale of cigarettes is the Government. Last year, it raked in a whopping $2.145 billion in taxes, despite the finger-wagging, distracting media releases and Smokefree Aotearoa 2025. Government coffers grew $68 a second off smokers who are among the poorest in our country, adding up to $243,663 every hour and $5.76 million every day over 2021-22. All from the smokes.

All for the Government. 

To read more go to Sunny Kaushal: Smoking out the bugs in new tobacco regulations - NZ Herald.