Illegal Tobacco on the Rise in Australia

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com Friday, March 3, 2006 03/06/2006

A recent report found that nearly one-tenth of Australia's tobacco crop is grown by crime organizations and is sold on the black market, often tax-free. The report said that up to 290,000 smokers buy the contraband tobacco, saving about two-thirds on the price and costing the government $100 million in lost taxes. Smokers of the tobacco often "believe it is 'natural', unadulterated and therefore less harmful," said the report. However, the so-called "chop chop" tobacco is often wet and cut with twigs, cotton pulp, hay, cabbage leaves, grass clippings and a "dense volume of fungal contamination." Officials say the illegal crop has increased 43 percent in three years, now reaching 347,000 tons, which is nearly a tenth the size of the legal crop of 3.5 million tons. Enditem