Plain tobacco packaging may fuel black market

Big supermarket chains and small dairy owners are warning plain tobacco packaging will slash their profits, and fuel the black market for cigarettes.  Trina Snow from the Association of Retail Grocers, which represents those stores, has told a select committee plain packaging would make it easier to counterfeit tobacco products.  “At the moment cigarette packets have got lots of designs and embossing on them which are hard to replicate. When you go to plain packaging, everybody’s got the design, it all looks the same so it’s going to be very easy to replicate any cigarette and just put the brand name on it.”  Plunket and health experts have today made submissions supporting the proposed law change.