Young buy into illegal trade

Figures from a new survey show that more than half of all teenage smokers in the north-east of England have bought illicit tobacco products, according to a story in The Conversation.

The figures, from the 2017 North East Illegal Tobacco Survey, found that 55 percent of smokers between the ages of 14 and 15 said they had bought illicit tobacco products from shops or “tab houses”, while 73 percent said they had been offered illicit tobacco products at some point.

The Conversation story said there had been cases of illicit tobacco being sold to children from ice-cream vans.

And sometimes these sales were of single sticks, which were much easier for young people to buy with their pocket money.

The Conversation reported that because they were generally cheaper than were licit products, illicit products could discourage people from deciding to give up smoking.

But it busted the myth about illicit cigarettes being more harmful than were licit ones.

All cigarettes were harmful to health, it said.

A High Court judgement in 2016 recognised there was no difference in the harm presented by any brand of cigarettes.

In this way, tobacco control advocates often likened any differences between the consumption of licit and illicit cigarettes as being similar to the difference between jumping out of the 12th or 13th floor of a burning building.

The full story is at: https://theconversation.com/nearly-half-of-teenage-smokers-have-bought-illegal-tobacco-so-what-are-the-dangers-85558.