The country’s peak body for public health has welcome the South Australian Government’s tougher laws to counter illicit tobacco, saying it adds pressure on other jurisdictions to match it.
“We’re really pleased to see the South Australian Government continuing to take action against the illicit tobacco retail sector, such as with increased fines and jail terms announced today,” the Public Health Association of Australia’s South Australia-based President, Professor Caroline Miller, said.
“These are more levers to pull to reduce the widespread availability of a product which will kill two in three of its users when smoked as the manufacturer intended.
“We’re confident that among the benefits of these new restrictions will be increases in calls from South Australians to the Quit line, as has happened in QLD, because we know most people who smoke wish they’d never started.”
The measures announced today follow the Australian Council on Smoking and Health’s (ACOSH) second National Illicit Tobacco Ladder, which shows QLD and SA are leading in their various actions against illicit tobacco.
“The leadership those states are showing really needs to be matched by the other jurisdictions, especially the territories,” Professor Miller added.
“Because preventing people from starting to smoke, and helping existing smokers to quit, reduces the anguish tens of thousands of families endure each year from tobacco-related deaths and disease.”
