Dubious honor

Malaysia has the highest share of illicit cigarettes in the world, according to a study commissioned by the Confederation of Malaysian Tobacco Manufacturers.

Illicit cigarettes accounted for 58.9 percent, or 12 billion sticks, of the domestic tobacco market in 2018, up 3.3 percent from 2017.

To determine the size of the illegal tobacco market, researchers collected 153,000 discarded cigarette packs throughout 2018 and analyzed them for local tax stamps and authentic packaging. Of the illegal cigarette packs, 91 percent did not have tax stamps while the remaining share bore fake tax stamps.