Journal of Invasive Cardiology
Chunghwa (cigarette) Chunghwa (simplified Chinese:
The study, which is the first attempt by the Australian government to estimate the size of the black market, found that "prices for legal tobacco products have almost tripled since December 2016 driven by annual tobacco excise increases, while estimated prices of illicit tobacco products have remained relatively constant." Since 2020, household spending on legal cigarettes and tobacco has almost halved, but between 2017 and 2025, the amount of nicotine consumed in Australia has risen by almost 40 percent
"At a time when tobacco had lost some glamour , kids aged 12, 13, 18 get access to a product with nicotine or without it, they learn to smoke and multiply by four the likelihood of becoming smokers", warns the expert
To put it simply, Big Tobacco had huge R&D budgets and scientists who maximised the addictiveness of cigarettes in pursuit of profits over many decades