Comment: Counterfeit cigarettes are poison

After all, no-one is hurt other than the income streams of tobacco companies whose own products are ruinous to people's health.

Except it is not a victimless crime.

This underhand, black market trade means that there is no control on the potentially poisonous content of these cheap packets.

And shockingly, as the Express & Star reveals today, dozens of shops across the Black Country are pushing these goods to customers eager to avoid the high taxes placed on the real thing.

Of course those taxes are levied for a reason.

Up to £2 billion a year is lost to the Exchequer because of people going for the cheaper, fake alternative.

This is money that could go into the health services that smokers rely on – whether they have lit up the real thing or not. And while every real cigarette can cause harm, the fake ones are even worse.

It is not this newspaper's job to lecture its readers on the dangers of smoking.

But we do believe it is our duty to point out that black market fake cigarettes contain even more dangerous chemicals than the real ones, with traces of animal droppings, dead insects, asbestos and plastics.

They are made all over the world in unregulated factories.

Then they end up in shops or the car park of a pub.

But they are not even hidden away. All our investigator had to do was ask whether there were 'any cheap cigs'.

The taxman has hit cigarettes heavily with increased duty at almost every budget.

As the health risks associated with them, and the cost of treating those who suffer, have become more apparent so too has the cost. It is therefore perhaps no surprise that some people will seek an alternative.

What they are not aware of is the damage they are doing to themselves and the harm they are doing to funding for the health services they may well come to rely upon.

The traders who sell these goods are doing themselves no favours. And it is obvious that they care nothing about their customers as long as there is are people willing to take a serious risk for the sake of saving a few pounds.