This appendices to this report can be found at: (https://ssrn.com/abstract=3435260). In regulating tobacco products, governments seek to promote public health by discouraging consumption. However, imposing regulatory costs and taxes on licit producers and consumers presents an economic...

With the passage of I-502 in 2012, Washington became (with Colorado) one of the first two US states to legalize the production, sale and use of recreational cannabis. As of June, 2018, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) has issued 1947 licenses. However, despite efforts to...

Illicit trade in tobacco products (ITTP) is big business in the United States and creates many harms including reduced tax revenues; damages to the economic interests of legitimate actors; funding for organized-crime and terrorist groups; negative effects of participation in illicit markets,...

Laws that prohibit, regulate, or tax cigarettes can generate illicit markets for tobacco products. Illicit markets both reduce the efficacy of policies intended to improve public health and create harms of their own. Enforcement can reduce evasion but creates additional harms, including...

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act [P.L. 111-31] gives the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products, including placing restrictions on product composition, sale, and distribution. A complete accounting of the costs and benefits of any...

Illicit trade in tobacco is a substantial and growing problem in the U.S., causing loss of tax revenue, damage to public health, and threats to public safety. Decisions about enforcement against ITTP involve tradeoffs among competing objectives. Good policy design can improve the terms of those...

Despite a range of tobacco control policies enacted since the mid-2000s, rates of tobacco smoking in Germany are significantly higher than in many EU nations, and cessation rates remain lower. This report explores the structural reasons for Germany’s historical opposition to tobacco control...

Track and trace (T&T) of tobacco products concerns recording and monitoring the physical locations through which the goods travel in the distribution channel. T&T systems for tobacco are intended mainly to combat tax evasion and illicit diversion of goods. This study examines current T&T systems...