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So, here we are.

We’re 117 days into the national lockdown, and it has been 117 days since tobacco sales were banned in South Africa.

Millions of smokers want to smoke and, when millions of people want to do something, they inevitably find a way.

As a result, smokers have turned to crooks who are exploiting their desperation, along with the desperation of small businesses that rely on tobacco sales to stay afloat, by charging an arm and a leg on the black market.

As the months have stretched on, the illicit cigarette trade has gone from strength to strength, costing the country billions in tax revenue and depriving workers in the legal tobacco industry of jobs.

Prices have also steadily increased as smokers become more desperate for a nicotine fix.

TimesLIVE reports:

SA smokers hankering for a puff during lockdown have been paying through the nose for their habit, with prices soaring by an average of 250%.

This pegs one box of 20 cigarettes at as much as R114, with black market prices rising significantly with the extension of the tobacco ban during level 3 of the national lockdown.

This, according to a study conducted by the University of Cape Town’s research unit on the economics of excisable products, which found that Capetonian smokers were hit hardest by the ban.

“There are substantial differences in the price increase between the provinces.

“The Western Cape recorded a 379% spike, the Northern Cape at 367% and Eastern Cape at 281% have experienced the largest increases,” the report reads.

Prices in Gauteng rose 152% compared to prices before lockdown.

Limpopo boasts the cheapest cigarettes, with prices rising by 123%.

Before the lockdown, 80% of smokers smoked brands produced by multinational companies like Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, and British American Tobacco.

As an aside, British American Tobacco South Africa is due to appear in court on August 5 to challenge the ban.

Following the tobacco ban, smokers switched to whatever they could get their hands on.

Local tobacco producers had stolen significant market share during the lockdown, with Gold Leaf Tobacco and controversial Carnilinx making up 26% and 14% of the preferred brands while cigarettes have been outlawed.

“None of the top 10 cigarette brands that were most purchased by our survey respondents, pre-lockdown are in the top 10 list of cigarette brands purchased during the lockdown.”

Researchers also noted that the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association’s court case against the government is odd “because their members have benefited disproportionately from the sales ban”.

“They have greatly increased their share of the market within our sample and sold their cigarettes at hugely inflated prices.”

“The extraordinary profits likely earned during the lockdown 4 period will allow them to oppose tobacco control reforms more effectively in future…”

The study also found that most of the people who quit during the lockdown didn’t do so because they were concerned for their health.

“Instead of imposing a sales ban to prevent people from smoking cigarettes, the government would have been able to achieve a similar outcome by substantially increasing the excise tax.

Most smokers that have quit smoking during lockdown did not quit because of health concerns or because they wanted to follow the government’s regulations, but because the illegal market that was created by the lockdown made cigarettes unaffordable.”

As we head into day 118, smokers continue to smoke, we continue to lose out on billions in tax revenue, and the ban stays in place, while tobacco smugglers laugh all the way to the bank.

Good times.

[source:timeslive]