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Analysis of the global burden of disease data found five commercial products are key factors in 31 per cent of all deaths annually.

The five everyday products linked to nearly one-third of all deaths globally

Researchers have uncovered three key strategies “health-harming” corporations use. And they’re straight from the tobacco playbook.

  • Kate Aubusson and Liam Mannix

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After falling for decades, the smoking rate is now rising, experts fear.

Australia’s smoking rates fell for decades. But that’s changed – and here’s why

Early evidence suggests the flood of cheap cigarettes could have pushed Australia’s smoking rates up for the first time since the 1990s.

  • Marta Pascual Juanola
Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill.

Should tobacconists even exist? Minister poses radical question as illegal cigarette sales soar

“Hitting criminals where it hurts means using every tool: more rapidly taking their profits, cars, cash, houses, boats and toys away,” the Labor assistant minister said.

  • Paul Sakkal and Shane Wright
Illicit Double Happiness cigarettes, which are sold for as low as $13 in stores.

Victoria to shut down dodgy tobacco shops under new laws

Under the proposed changes to be introduced this year, building owners who knowingly lease stores to illicit operators will face massive financial penalties.

  • Rachael Dexter
Rising taxes on tobacco over several years created a black market that became so lucrative that transnational crime gangs battled for control of it. One is led by Kazem “Kaz” Hamad.

‘We handed over billions to organised crime’: How official neglect and incompetence fuelled the tobacco war

Despite repeated warnings that rising tobacco taxes would hand a fortune to organised crime, governments watched a multibillion-dollar black market explode.

  • Chris Vedelago and Marta Pascual Juanola
Melbourne’s tobacco wars are reigniting.

‘They’re getting sent a message’: Tobacco war reignites as Kaz Hamad’s ‘Commission’ fights to retain control

There have been more than a dozen arson attacks and two shootings related to illicit tobacco markets since Hamad was arrested in Iraq in mid-January.

  • Chris Vedelago and Marta Pascual Juanola
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Victoria Police.

Police seize five guns, including AK-47, after tobacco shop fire

Officers believe this violence to be part of a wider trend of criminal syndicates looking to fill the vacuum left in the tobacco black market following the arrest of Kazem Hamad.

  • Alexander Darling
Manchester cigarettes

The inside story of how Australia became one of the most lucrative illicit tobacco markets in the world

An unprecedented look into how and why Australia has been plagued by a war for control of the multibillion-dollar tobacco trade, from Dubai to the streets of our largest cities.

  • Chris Vedelago, Marta Pascual Juanola and The Visual Stories Team
Illicit tobacco could make up 90 per cent of the market by the end of the decade.

‘Something has to change’: Cut cigarette tax or more people will get hurt, says Liberal MP

The government is facing a collapse in tobacco excise – $67 billion in a decade. A Liberal MP says it’s time to cut the tax to undermine the illegal trade in cigarettes.

  • Shane Wright
An Australian Border Force officer checks a stash of illegal cigarette imports in Melbourne.

The radical plan to stop illegal tobacco: cut the price of cigarettes

Nine in 10 cigarettes will be illegal by the end of the decade. New research suggests it’s time to slash cigarette taxes and help save the budget.

  • Shane Wright