Four in five cigarettes are now illegal — and the sewers prove it

SMH · Brittany Busch, Shane Wright · Thursday 4 June 2026

Four in five cigarettes are now illegal — and the sewers prove it

Wastewater analysis shows Australians never stopped smoking — up to four in five cigarettes are now illicit, suggesting tobacco excise has built a black market rather than a quit rate.

Tax a packet to forty bucks and act stunned when it's selling out the back of the servo for fifteen. Sales dropped, so Canberra declared the nation cured — meanwhile the sewers are full of nicotine and the tobacconists are burning across Melbourne. America priced vice out of existence in 1920 and handed the trade to Al Capone. We've done it with excise and called it public health.

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