Smokes and cyberspace: a public health disaster in the making
Gregory N. Connolly · Tobacco Control · 2001
Smokes and cyberspace: a public health disaster in the making Three articles in this month's journal raise serious concerns about the internet becoming the future marketplace for the sale of cigarettes.1-3 One seller predicts that 20% of all cigarettes will be sold over the internet in 10 years.The warning is clear: if the tobacco industry embraces this new unregulated medium, many of the major public interventions that we have developed to curb real world lung cancer could go up in a puV of cyber smoke.Taxes, ad bans, and youth access laws are easily eroded online.To test this premise, I took my own digital tour of the web starting first with Brown and Williamson's (B&W) and RJ Reynolds' (RJR) on line document depositories, and found megabyte plans for moving operations to the world wide web (www.tobaccoresolution.com).A juicy, 1997, RJR internal memo boasts of the new power of the web to get their brands warm and cozy with individual smokers.Camel would have its own home page with instant clicks to Camel Cash, chat rooms, a store, and, of course, the date of the next Camel Club Night nearest you; a virtual classroom for teaching nicotine addiction.Similarly, B &W has plans to use the web to market its brands.Not surprisingly, B&W successfully sued New York State when it banned internet sales in 2000.The judge unfortunately traded the health of lungs over the commercial interests of the tobacco industry.My next visit was to www.discount-cigarettes.com, a portal for 50 plus online retailers.Most sites oVered single cartons at half the price you pay at a bricks and mortar retail outlet.You only had to read the site's confidentiality policies not to share information with state tax oYcials to realise why the cigarettes were so cheap.The federal Jenkins Act requires out of state vendors to report purchasers' names to in-state tax departments, but sites on native American land claim sovereignty from state authority, and sites from low tax states, such as Virginia, claim that by paying its 4 cent tax, their reporting is done.So much for taxes, price elasticities, and quitting.With all those cartons hanging around the house, smokers may even smoke more.