Gray market cigarettes: a threat to more than just our health
08/10/99
If you smoke cigarette, there is a good chance you have bought them without even realizing it...â€gray market†cigarettes. Up to a third of the cigarettes in the South Florida market have been manufactured only for sale abroad, not in the United States
If you see them side by side, you might not notice a difference between the domestic and gray market cigarette packs. But turn them on their sides and look closely. In tiny gold letters, the gray market cigarette packs state U.S. TAX EXEMPT, FOR USE OUTSIDE U.S.
They are called gray market cigarettes gray for the gray area of the law it exploits and they are flooding the South Florida market. Smokers who have run across them, complain about them.
It’s like a stale tobacco. I’ve been smoking for many years and it’s stale, said one smoker, Carmen Campbell. Carmen Diequez also noticed a difference: They were different tasting. Certainly, they were not the full tobacco taste that you’re used to smoking.