John Colley has found it nigh on impossible to buy his favourite pipe tobacco due to the insistence on a different health warning in the Channel Islands. (Picture by John O’Neill, 0549392)
A PIPE smoker of nearly 50 years believes he is being victimised by the health authorities.
Vale man John Colley, 68, said that Health and Social Security’s insistence on a Channel Islands health warning on tobacco products meant that his favourite brand was no longer available in the island.
‘I can’t get it anywhere here and I’ve been told it is down to the packaging,’ he said. Mr Colley said he had imported a pack from Northern Ireland at a cost of £50 and on top of that faced a £30 charge imposed by Customs.
He said the cost was becoming prohibitive because he lived on a pension. ‘I feel I’m being victimised. I’ve been a pipe smoker since I was 20 and I’m being forced to give up the only vice I have.’
Tobacco importers had sympathy for Mr Colley and other pipe and cigar smokers.
Scott Vines, a director of Fox Trading, said the Channel Island health warnings had caused a problem for manufacturers.
‘It is down to the economies of scale,’ he said.
‘The volume of sales of pipe tobacco and cigars in the Channel Islands is a tiny percentage of the sales in the UK.
‘Manufacturers say it is not financially viable for them to repackage such small amounts for the islands.’
Mr Vine said that the decision by the island authorities to include pictorial images on tobacco products could add to the problem.
He said that if the islands continued to do their own thing with regard to health warnings, there could be further reductions in the variety of brands of all tobacco products available.
Health minister Deputy Peter Roffey said that he had some sympathy with Mr Colley and the point he had made.
He said the current policy was to include specific Channel Islands health warnings on tobacco products.
But he believed there could be a way forward.
The UK Government’s decision to include pictorial warnings on tobacco products was in line with the islands’ decision to do the same.
‘I believe that the UK’s warnings will mirror our thinking and it might not be necessary to impose a specific Channel Islands health warning.’
He said that if that happened, there was a possibility of a win-win situation.
‘We could charge more duty due to the reduced costs to the manufacturer for repackaging, bringing in more revenue for us and allowing the import of all tobacco brands.’
But he said that was for the new department members and States to decide.
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