One vocal opponent of the tobacco tax increase has been the Association of Community Retailers (ACR), a group that describes itself as a “grassroots organisation” of “small, independent family-run retail outlets”. However, a few surface scratches reveal the group’s ‘corner dairies owned and operated by mum and dad’ membership to be a façade. Keith Ng suggests the deception has been so clumsy it borders on comedy.
By Keith Ng for NZ Drug Foundation