Two sides to tobacco figures

In your letters page, (Examiner 3/4/’14), Kathleen O’Meara of the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) rejects the latest figures on smuggled tobacco, but she would say that, wouldn’t she?

She states that, “While price plays a role in making a country potentially profitable for smugglers, the primary incentive is the level of detection and enforcement.”

To inform the lady better, profit is the only incentive for the criminal smuggler. Because of the incessant lobbying by the ICS and their colleagues in the Tobacco Control Industry, the Irish smoker pays twice the European average for their legal cigarettes.