Carreras’ managing director faces hot seat as parliamentary committee member tears into tobacco industry

Raoul Glynn, the managing director of cigarette company Carreras, was today (June 30) raked over the coals as he appeared before a joint select committee of Parliament examining the Tobacco Control Act, 2020.

Glynn and his team were appearing before the committee to make a submission, on behalf of Carreras, outlining the cigarette distributor’s concerns about the legislation aimed at placing stricter regulations on the industry.

In responding to a question from committee chairman Dr Christopher Tufton, Glynn stressed that, while he was supportive of regulation, as constructed, the legislation was too restrictive and would weaken the market for legal cigarettes while allowing for the expansion of the illicit, non-tax paying trade which already stands at 20 per cent.

But Tufton, who is also the minister of health and wellness, immediately attacked the argument.

“This is a problem I have with the argument around illicit trade if you regulate. Because what you are doing is bringing two challenges together that really don’t have to and should not be bundled in that way,” the health minister said.

“If we have a problem with the illicit trade, it has to be dealt with by the authorities – border control, Customs. And that is a challenge and I know the customs agents are dealing with that and we don’t have it in only tobacco, we have it in other areas.”

At the same time, a strident Senator Saphire Longmore declared: “There is no evidence. It is your opinion that you are expressing, what the consequences of this legislation might be. In other jurisdictions where this type of legislation has been instituted, it has been shown to be effective in especially stemming the use of the substance among young persons.”

An impassioned Longmore added: “It is really very erroneous to say that this legislation and what it intends to do will not reduce the use of the substance amongst the targeted population and also the fact that it is seeking to enhance the illicit trade. That is not the curcumstance that the evidence actually shows.”

The government senator also dismissed several of Glynn’s other claims in his presentation as inaccurate and, along with Tufton, pressed him to consider the economic impact cigarette smoking had on health care.

“Smoking is related to cancers of the head and neck, the lung, leukemia, which is blood, stomach kidneys, pancreas, colon, bladder, and cervix. It is also associated with the chronic diseases of stroke, blindness, gum infection, aortic rupture, heart diseas, hardening of the arteries…,” Longmore, a breast cancer survivor, said in suggesting that the taxes the legal industry contributes to the state coffers pale in comparison to the costs.

“When you are almagamating the cost to care, consider all of those diagnoses that the Government has to absorb.”

She also noted that Glynn had outlined Carreras’ corporate social responsiblity projects, such as the distribution of scholarships, but questioned whether the company had also considered establishing detox facilities to assist individuals who had become addicted to its product.

In further tackling the Carreras boss, Longmore also argued that he was wrong to suggest that a ban on displays was ineffective in curbing cigarette smoking. She argued that display bans served a valuable purpose in that they are effective in reducing exposure to young people who aren’t yet addicted.

“I am a doctor. I have seen persons come in front of me, sit in front of me with tears in their eyes, wanting to stop smoking and they cannot. And they literally have to leave to go outside to have a smoke and come back inside and talk to me,” Longmore, a psychatrist, said.

“You have women, who in their youthful days saw it as the hip thing to do, and are struggling now to have a child and they cannot. And while they are taking the fertility treatment, they are still smoking. It takes away free chioice.”

GLYNN STANDS BY CLAIMS ON CONSUMPTION

In standing by his claim that illicit cigarette distribution would increase due to the vacuum created by the reduction in availability of legal product under the legislation, Glynn would later cite the experience of Suriname where he said similar legislation was introduced.

With similar restrictions on advertising, other marketing activity and exposure, Glynn said Suriname saw legal cigarette sales (and the accompanying taxes paid to government) fall to just 10 per cent, even though overall consumption remained the same.

The committee is scheduled to meet again on July 27.