As we found out here, to everyone's cost. You may have missed it in Aus, but briefly:
The original hard lockdown in SA was scheduled for three weeks, and one of the provisions was a ban on sale and transport of tobacco products (eventually expanded to include vaping products). The ban eventually lasted 5 months as it was extended through different levels of lockdown (we have just passed 1 year of uninterrupted lockdowns at various levels). Result? Wholesale smuggling, black marketeering, profiteering - including, reputedly, family of the minister responsible - sky high prices, massive tax losses just when they were needed most, deterioration in mental health of smokers and general criminalising of and criminality on the part of most smokers. Finally, almost no-one gave up smoking.
Disaster is a mild understatement.
The original hard lockdown in SA was scheduled for three weeks, and one of the provisions was a ban on sale and transport of tobacco products (eventually expanded to include vaping products). The ban eventually lasted 5 months as it was extended through different levels of lockdown (we have just passed 1 year of uninterrupted lockdowns at various levels). Result? Wholesale smuggling, black marketeering, profiteering - including, reputedly, family of the minister responsible - sky high prices, massive tax losses just when they were needed most, deterioration in mental health of smokers and general criminalising of and criminality on the part of most smokers. Finally, almost no-one gave up smoking.
Disaster is a mild understatement.
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