Cigarette smuggling: India
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On a rise: 2012-15
The Times of India, May 30 2015
Sushmi Dey
Four-fold rise in cigarette smuggling into India: WHO
Cigarette smuggling into the country increased four-fold (by value) between 2012 and 2014, seizure data from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) shows. The data has been cited in a latest draft working paper prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to contend that illicit trade in tobacco products undermines tobacco control policies and leads to significant revenue loss. WHO has pegged the import duty evasion from smuggling cigarettes into the country at Rs 2,363 crore for 2014-15.
According to the paper, titled `Illicit Tobacco Trade In India: Forms, Trends and Potential Actions', the smuggled cigarettes are suspected to be from Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China and the United Arab Emirates and common transit points are Delhi, Singapore and Dubai.
“In the south-east Asia region, many countries have porous borders that provide easy opportunity for the smuggling of tobacco products. All south-east Asian countries have enacted stringent laws to control tobacco consumption both on pricing and sale of tobacco products in-country as well as against import of foreign brands and despite these efforts, there is still a thriving trade in smuggled tobacco products,“ Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of WHO in south-east Asia region, said.
Singh said illegal trade of tobacco products facilitated increased use of tobacco by youth and adults from low-income groups by bringing down the cost and making them more accessible. Moreover, health regulations such as pictorial warnings or increased taxes are also not applied on illegal products.
Nicotine addiction
FROM THE ARCHIVES OF ‘‘THE TIMES OF INDIA’’: 2008
Chicago: For some people, one cigarette is all it takes to become hooked on nicotine, while others are repelled by it. Researchers in Canada have found a region in the brains of rats that may be the key to these differences.
By manipulating specific molecular doorways into brain cells called receptors, they were able to control which rats in the study enjoyed their first exposure to nicotine and which were repelled by it.
“Our findings may explain an individual’s vulnerability to nicotine addiction and may point to new pharmacological treatments for the prevention of it and the treatment of nicotine withdrawal,” said Steven Laviolette of the University of Western Ontario, who reported his findings in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Several studies have found that certain people are especially responsive to the effects of nicotine.
One, published last October in the journal Pediatrics, found teens who felt relaxed after their first drags on a cigarette were far more likely to become addicted to smoking.
“During the early phase of tobacco exposure, many individuals find nicotine highly unpleasant and aversive, whereas others may become rapidly dependent on nicotine and find it highly rewarding,” Laviolette said.
To explore the difference, Laviolette and colleagues did a series of experiments on rats, which have brain structures similar to humans.
They zeroed in on two areas in the reward circuit of the brain called nucleus accumbens. They found specific receptors of the message-carrying chemical dopamine in the core and shell of the nucleus accumbens controlled whether the rats enjoyed or were repelled by nicotine.
When the researchers blocked two types of dopamine receptors — D-1 and D-2 — with drugs delivered to these areas of the nucleus accumbens, the rats experienced nicotine as a positive, rewarding experience. “We were able to switch nicotine’s aversive effects to rewarding effects,” Laviolette said. Laviolette said “naturally occurring differences” in these receptors may account for why some people are more susceptible to nicotine addiction. REUTERS
