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Ireland: European "capital" of cigarette smuggling

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  • 20-02-2010 7:13pm
    #1
    OutlawPete
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,689 ✭✭✭✭


    Consumer report says that a quarter of all cigarettes smoked here are illegal and labels us European capital of cigarette smuggling.
    Smoking in Ireland fell sharply after the workplace ban and we briefly led the world in anti-smoking measures. Six years on, the country is a tobacco smuggling blackspot, and a quarter of cigarettes smoked here are illegal.

    Do you buy smuggled cigarettes or other goods?

    If so, why and do you feel any remorse or guilt in doing so?

    Source

    Do you buy smuggled cigarettes or other goods? 49 votes

    Yes, what's it to you?
    0%
    No, I don't and anyone that does needs a kick up the arse.
    42%
    omahaidXcom2Fighting IrishWezCrowdedHousedermo88#Smokey#monosharpSunset VBorneo FnctnxFROSTY Gxdf1985captainjackLizzzardBluesBerryRonan Keatingevolutionqy7GauntyMcNulty737Bootsy. 21 votes
    Just the odd pack of smokes, what harm?
    42%
    VictorDamienHDr4gul4Mike 1972AlessandraBlowfishdotsmanjoe_dunnedsmythyLCFin.yayjumpguy54krochypersquirrellcrcboyLookBehindYouTheBastardthetonynatorBonitobonermscruff monkey 21 votes
    Some cinema DVDs and I illegally download movies too.
    14%
    Jev/Nmsg11smiley girlFridaysWellHerbal DeityXlunaElenxor 7 votes


«1

Comments

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    #2
    Princess Consuela Bananahammock
    Registered Users Posts: 33,256 ✭✭✭✭Princess Consuela Bananahammock


    Don't smoke - very thankful for it - and not bloody surprised people are buying the imports, given the tax.

    Everything I don't like is either woke or fascist - possibly both - pick one.



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    #3
    df1985
    Registered Users Posts: 4,432 ✭✭✭df1985


    No, I don't and anyone that does needs a kick up the arse.
    a direct result of the price of them here. hardly worth your while if ya lived in spain to smuggle them in!

    i only smoke after a few drinks/semi pissed but if i was a heavy smoker id be filling my suitcase, wouldnt feel any guilt in doing so.


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    #4
    mikom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,391 ✭✭✭✭mikom


    I like smuggled peanuts.


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    #5
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Those poll options are pretty poor

    They remind me of a Mitch Hedberg joke about filling in a questionaire for a job.

    "Do you like sugar, or, PCP?"


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    #6
    biko
    Registered Users Posts: 81,223 ✭✭✭✭biko


    A pack of smokes is twice as expensive in Ireland as in Sweden, of course people will buy smuggled fags, it's cheaper that way.
    Or take a flight to Spain over the weekend and stock up. You're allowed pretty much as much as you can carry within EU.


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    #7
    OutlawPete
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,689 ✭✭✭✭OutlawPete


    Dave! wrote: »
    Those poll options are pretty poor

    What option were you looking for?


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    #8
    Wazdakka
    Registered Users Posts: 4,467 ✭✭✭Wazdakka


    What an ingenious poll..

    Were on to you Mr customs officer... I'm not answering.


  • Options
    #9
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    OutlawPete wrote: »
    What option were you looking for?
    Well I don't buy smuggled smokes but don't think people who do should be kicked up the arse ! And I don't buy smuggled DVDs but I do download sh*t malegally !

    I don't think I can vote !


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    #10
    OutlawPete
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,689 ✭✭✭✭OutlawPete


    Dave! wrote: »
    Well I don't buy smuggled smokes but don't think people who do should be kicked up the arse ! And I don't buy smuggled DVDs but I do download sh*t malegally !

    I don't think I can vote !

    That's how I felt at the last election, so just pick whichever option is closest.

    Option No seems to be the one and you have posted you download movies, so all is good.


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    #11
    jumpguy
    Registered Users Posts: 7,962 ✭✭✭jumpguy


    Just the odd pack of smokes, what harm?
    Poor border control + highly inflated price for cigarettes = how can we be surprised?

    Government have two choices...increase the border control's capacity, which would be very costly, or reduce the price of cigarettes to maybe 6 Euro and therefore increase their revenue as more people buy cigarettes (yes, by decreasing tax they might increase their net revenue).

    I don't smoke btw...but if this is the case, something more than tutting must be done. The profits from illegal ciggies go straight back to crime.


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    #12
    msg11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,572 ✭✭✭msg11


    Some cinema DVDs and I illegally download movies too.
    The price is sky high here. Because they need the money for the health care system, Emmm which has failed.

    When smokers do need to use it, Emmm it will fail some more.

    Hike the price of the fags up and say it's for health care. Got to love it, me hole it's for the banks and the goverments pockets. Ye, it can kill you. But so can anything.

    The price of fags. Look at the price of Petrol 1.25c , I heard before the mark up is near 60% tax. Ahh yeah save the enviroment.

    If the goverment brought the tax down to earth, we might be able to buy something legally.


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    #13
    alwaysadub
    Registered Users Posts: 11,554 ✭✭✭✭alwaysadub


    Well i don't smoke,but i do download movies and songs. And when im in Spain or somewhere where smokes are a hell of a lot cheaper,i take orders for my mates and bring home as many as i can smuggle in..


    /waits for customs to come banging the door down


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    #14
    Prof.Badass
    Registered Users Posts: 2,931 ✭✭✭Prof.Badass


    Shit poll tbh. I don't smoke smuggled cigarettes because I don't smoke, but that doesn't stop me from giving my full endorsement to those who do. It's great to hear that so many people are not letting themselves be dicked around by the nanny-state.


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    #15
    OutlawPete
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,689 ✭✭✭✭OutlawPete


    vinylmesh wrote: »
    Shit poll tbh..

    What option were YOU looking for :rolleyes:

    If you support people buying them, click Yes .. it's not an exam.


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    #16
    Prof.Badass
    Registered Users Posts: 2,931 ✭✭✭Prof.Badass


    OutlawPete wrote: »
    What option were YOU looking for :rolleyes:

    A simple no option perhaps. The only no option there is "No, I don't and anyone that does needs a kick up the arse" which doesn't apply to me because i think people who buy smuggled cigarettes are great.
    If you support people buying them, click Yes .. it's not an exam.

    I don't want to be seen as reading into this too much, but i think your poll takes the assumption that everyone who doesn't smoke is against illegal cigarettes or else doesn't care. Not saying you did this on purpose but there is an attitude in society of basing political views on self-interest rather than principle. For example, just because i'd never use a prostitute myself, doesn't mean i don't have strong feelings that those who wish to should be allowed to do so.

    I'd like if basing views on principle was seen as the norm rather than basing views on self-interest.


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    #17
    Hank_Jones
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,783 ✭✭✭Hank_Jones


    I'm pleading the fifth with regards to the poll, for fear that I might incriminate myself.

    I know a fair few eastern europeans and they always get their cigarettes sent over to them as it's much cheaper. Is that smuggling?
    I have no problems with that, even if they are selling them to people they know.

    If somebody is smuggling in cigarettes by the thousands, then I would probably have a bit of a problem with that, they are basically taking money out of this country's health, schooling systems etc. Plus if the cigarettes are counterfeit then who knows what is in them (not that ordinary cigarettes are that healthy, but they are regulated).


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    #18
    MaybeLogic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭MaybeLogic


    Crap poll, tbh.
    Where's the 'I only smoke other people's, cause I'm too sting to buy my own' option?


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    #19
    Elenxor
    Closed Accounts Posts: 485 ✭✭Elenxor


    Some cinema DVDs and I illegally download movies too.
    .....a 'friend' of mine bought a pack on the street... it looked exactly like a shop bought pack, the taste on the other hand was vile, burning, and not in any shape or form like the real thing.


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    #20
    Xluna
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,329 ✭✭✭Xluna


    Some cinema DVDs and I illegally download movies too.
    OutlawPete wrote: »
    do you feel any remorse or guilt in doing so?

    Source

    laughing-cat.jpg


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    #21
    MaybeLogic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭MaybeLogic


    Elenxor wrote: »
    and not in any shape or form like the real thing.

    A wiggledy cigarette?


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    #22
    laugh
    Registered Users Posts: 3,745 ✭✭✭laugh


    A combination of a long coastline and a massive amount of newly unemployed people?


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    #23
    Tellox
    Registered Users Posts: 2,680 ✭✭✭Tellox


    Nice try, customs office.

    I'm actually giving up at the moment, and have cut down from 30 a day to a small (irish government taxed) pouch a week. Switching to patches on March 1st.

    But when I was smoking 30 a day, smuggled all the way. Don't think I know anyone who bought smokes from a shop unless they were stuck. €8.50~ for smokes, or around €3-4 per pack.. yeah, no ta.

    I also shop in the north whenever I can. **** "helping our economy". I won't sugarcoat what I'm doing - when it comes to my money, I only give a **** about how it's going to benefit me, not anybody else.


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    #24
    drusk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 134 ✭✭drusk


    Why, when creating this poll, did you decide to choose what attitude responders might take?

    The second option is "No, and anyone that does deserves a kick up the arse." What makes you think that people that want to vote 'No' will take the attitude that those that do deserve a kick up the arse? I don't smoke smuggled cigarettes, but I applaud those that do.

    Why couldn't you have simply had 'Yes' or 'No' options?! Or instead asked, 'What's your attitude to people that smoke smuggled cigarettes?'

    Your predisposed assumptions regarding each response makes this an utterly sh*t poll.


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    #25
    OutlawPete
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,689 ✭✭✭✭OutlawPete


    drusk wrote: »
    Why, when creating this poll, did you decide to choose what attitude responders might take?.

    I apologise.

    Christ on a cross, it's AH.

    It's tongue in cheek ffs.

    PM a Mod if you want the Poll changed.

    I'm off out.


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    #26
    dermo88
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,000 ✭✭✭dermo88


    No, I don't and anyone that does needs a kick up the arse.
    While the intentions of the Government to eliminate the use of tobacco are noble, the policies used are extreme. It is also now clear that the Government only cares about the revenue, rather than the health of the populace.

    The pendulum could swing too far in one direction, where excessive measures lead to smoking being used as an expression of rebellion, of individuality, irrespective of the health risks involved.

    It is clear that some sensible measures are required.

    1. Like Singapore, on the bottom of each cigarette produced or manufactured for sale, a print:

    "Irish Government, Duty Paid, for sale in the Republic of Ireland"

    This would distinguish legal versus illegal tobacco.

    2. A tax reduction bringing it in line with comparable European countries, such as France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The Government tend to forget that we are in a currency union, and that this causes comparisons with other countries in the Eurozone. I reckon the retail price should be around 5.50 Euro per pack of 20. ASH would go crazy, but at this stage, most of the measures to create a reasonable smoke free environment have been implemented. There is not much else that can be done, and it is draconian as it is.

    3. Ban vending machines.

    4. No direct displays of tobacco behind shop counters.

    The indirect taxes rose excessively during the boom period. This was all well and good where an addicted smoker would just shell out 7 or 8 Euro a pack. Now its different, and other measures are required.

    We have entered an era like prohibition, where laws are being flouted and ignored. When we reach that juncture, common sense needs to prevail.


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    #27
    IrishManSaipan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭IrishManSaipan


    Hank_Jones wrote: »

    I know a fair few eastern europeans and they always get their cigarettes sent over to them as it's much cheaper. Is that smuggling?
    I have no problems with that, even if they are selling them to people they know.

    The government and big business had no problems availing of cheap labour from eastern europe and now they have the nerve to complain about the average joe availing of cheaper ciggies from eastern europe?

    Ahhh diddums.:P


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    #28
    smellslikeshoes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,354 ✭✭✭smellslikeshoes


    I'm not a smoker but more power to the lads that go over and fill their suitcases for themselves. The government have brought this on themselves with the level of taxes on cigarettes.


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    #29
    DublinWriter
    Registered Users Posts: 9,556 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


    *sigh* This auld chestnut.

    Ask any actuary and he/she/it will tell you that we smokers are beneficial to the national economy.

    Why? Because a) we die younger, minimising government exposure to state pensions and b) we contribute 90% duty on the average pack of 20, that's right boys and girls, a pack of 20 cigarettes only costs about €1 to manufacture.

    Now, back to the thread in hand. Would I buy counterfeit smokes in the Republic? I have, and I did, and they are vile. Nothing like the real thing and best avoided.

    These days I just head over the border or take a cheap Ryanair flight.


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    #30
    IrishManSaipan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭IrishManSaipan


    DublinWriter wrote: »

    These days I just head over the border or take a cheap Ryanair flight.

    There is nothing better than coming home with your spoils of your trip abroad. Sparking up a Spanish John Player Blue(3.50 euro a pack) and saying a big fook you to our Fianna Fail over lords.

    One of the finer things in life.:cool:


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    #31
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    I often don't have the option to buy illegal smokes when I need them. I buy rollies anyway there not to bad yet.


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