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The True Costs of Illicit Tobacco

By Nicolas Otte

Illicit tobacco costs Latin America and Canada $4.6 billion every year.

I always say that piracy is the ransom of success. If you make a better product, people will try to counterfeit it; the more innovative the product is, the harder they will have to try, but try they will.

At Philip Morris International (PMI), we have very publicly announced our vision to stop selling cigarettes. We now have smoke-free products that offer people who won’t or don’t wish to quit a much better choice than cigarette smoking. But this vision comes with new threats not only for our business, but also for consumers and society as a whole.

While this industry...

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