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SNUS

Illegal snus operations a growing problem in Sweden

Sweden’s status as the only country in the EU where snus is legal has created a growing underground manufacturing operation, broadcaster SVT reported on Saturday.

Published: 7 October 2018 03:40 CEST

Illegal snus operations a growing problem in Sweden

File photo: ANDERS WIKLUND / TT

More popular than cigarettes in Sweden, snus is a moist tobacco product either bought loose or in small parcels and placed under the lip. Its export to and sale within other EU countries is banned, and the EU has consistently opted to maintain that restriction, with Sweden granted an exception and allowed to sell the product within its borders.

But demand for snus beyond Sweden’s borders is growing. So too is the number of Swedish operations apparently willing to break the law to meet the demand by producing and selling snus in secret. According to SVT, some snus manufacturers skirt the export ban by running illegal snus sales alongside their legal activities. But the broadcaster said there is also a flourishing black market in which snus is sold under fake labels.

“The knowledge is here since we have a long history of production. That makes Sweden a good starting point for the production of illegal snus,” Magnus Råsten of the Swedish Economic Crime Authority (Ekobrottsmyndigheten – EBM) told SVT.

EBM has reported an uptick in illegal snus production in recent years, particularly in Gothenburg. But the agency does not have an overview of how much of the tobacco product is being manufactured and sold illegally.

“Illegal manufacturing can in some cases be part of serious criminality but there are also manufacturers who are primarily engaged in legal activities,” Råsten said. “In contrast to drugs or weapons, it’s not as risky to get into the snus business because it is not illegal in Sweden. That also makes it harder for us to assess whether the activity is legal.”

According to Råsten, much of the foreign demand for snus comes from Norway, Finland and Russia.

“There is a market that people want to reach,” he said. “When there is money to be made, criminality often follows.”

Norway backs plain packets for cigarettes

Health Minister Bent Høie said the plain packaging could be rolled out in 2017. Lise Åserud / NTB scanpix

The announcements, which coincide with World No Tobacco Day, mean cigarettes must be sold in drab boxes plastered with health warnings and gruesome pictures of smoking-related diseases.

“Plans by New Zealand and Norway to introduce plain packaging to reduce demand for tobacco send a powerful signal that this initiative works,” Oleg Chestnov, the World Health Organization Assistant Director-General for noncommunicable diseases told AFP in an email.

Plain packaging, which removes what is seen as a powerful tool used to get young people hooked on tobacco, “will save lives,” he insisted.

According to WHO, one person dies from tobacco-caused disease every six seconds, amounting to nearly six million people each year — a number expected to rise to more than eight million by 2030.

Norway's proposed legislation for plain packaging will also apply to snus, the smokeless tobacco popular in Scandinavian countries, Health Minister Bent Høie said.

“The objective of plain packaging is to prevent tobacco use among children and adolescents. I think most people support this goal. We know that young people are affected by the appearance and design of tobacco packaging, and it is time to stop this type of marketing to young people,” Høie said in a statement.

In New Zealand, associate Health Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga pointed out that “12 New Zealanders die prematurely every day from smoking-related illnesses.

“Each of these deaths is preventable,” he stressed.

Høie told news agency NTB that he's confident that the Norwegian parliament will approve the legislation, which he plans to present within the next few weeks.

“If parliament handles the issue before Christmas, I hope it will be implemented during the course of 2017,” he said.

'Going global'

In a new report, the WHO said data from Australia, the first country to introduce so-called plain packaging four years ago, showed the measure had a clear impact on the number of habitual smokers in the country.

With similar laws taking effect earlier this month in Britain and France, and a range of other countries discussing following suit, WHO voiced hope the push to remove logos and distinctive colours from cigarette packs is “going global”, despite strong opposition from the tobacco industry.

“Plain packaging reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products,” WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a statement.

Imposing neutral cigarette packs, she said, “kills the glamour, which is appropriate for a product that kills people.”

Smoking in Australia has been steadily declining for years, but WHO said 0.55 points out of a total 2.0-percentage point drop in the three years after the law was introduced in December 2012 could be directly attributed to the neutral packaging.

That equates to more than 108,000 people quitting, not relapsing or not starting to smoke during the period, said the report, citing Australian statistics.

WHO said it hoped the data would help inspire more countries to climb aboard.

The new packs sold in Australia, and being phased in in Britain and France are intentionally ugly, covered with graphic health warnings, with no promotional information allowed and brand and product names displayed in standard colour and font size.

Plain packaging is only one of many tactics called for in WHO's 2005 Framework Convention for Tobacco Control aimed at reducing tobacco consumption, alongside protecting people from exposure to tobacco smoke, banning tobacco advertising and sales to minors, and requiring health warnings on all products.

Big Tobacco

The tobacco industry fought particularly hard to block the introduction of plain packets, and has mounted numerous legal challenges against countries seeking to impose them.

Høie told NTB that he expects “the tobacco industry to use all of its means to fight this in Norway”.

New Zealand first proposed plain packaging in 2013, but it was put on hold pending the outcome of tobacco giant Philip Morris' legal action against the Australian government's introduction of the packets a year earlier.

That lawsuit failed last December, and tobacco giants Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) also failed earlier this month to block the British legislation.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key admitted Tuesday the fact that so many countries were adopting the packaging had emboldened his government to ignore the threat of legal action from Big Tobacco.

“They may well take a case against the government, but the advice we have been getting over time now has been that the risks of them being successful… is reducing,” he told reporters.

“The industry fights hardest against the measures that are most effective,” Douglas Bettcher, who heads WHO's non-communicable disease prevention unit, told reporters in Geneva ahead of the report launch.

Plain packaging, he said, was so effective because it “very clearly labels tobacco for what it is: the only legally available product worldwide that when used as intended, kills up to half of its users,” he said.

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