The availability of illicit tobacco in Australia has reached plague proportions, with organised crime involving itself in the smuggling and distribution of the product.

And here’s the strange part – it’s the result of a public health policy success story!

This episode looks at the nature and scale of the problem as well as examines how policing the so-called heroin drought at the turn of the century might present some lessons for today’s law enforcement agencies.

The podcast can be accessed through all major podcast apps, or heard via the APJ website HERE.

Three articles are discussed in the episode.

The APJ article ‘Tobacco Wars: An Australian Perspective’, written by Detective Inspector Rohan Best, can be read HERE.

The paper written by Sergey Alexeev and Dr Don Weatherburn, titled ‘Dual-edged benefits of drug policing: A quarter century’s lesson from a heroin drought’ is published in the Journal of Law and Economics. It can be accessed HERE.

Sergey and Don’s article which appeared at the Conversation website, titled ‘As Australia’s tobacco wars continue, a NSW heroin drought in 2000 might offer lessons’, can be read HERE.