Let’s see now.
Where have I heard this before?
Oh, yeah. The Volstead Act of 1919 prohibited alcohol and made multi-millionaires of gangsters and bootleggers, institutionalized the FBI and created a whole class of law -breakers out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
If the UK is going to do this, the price of cigarettes in Britain is going up to $100 a pack and small boats will be crossing the Irish Sea in droves to satisfy the demand.
By creating this edict, Charles has guaranteed a resurgence in the demand for tobacco products that the tobacco companies could never have engineered on their own. Way to go, Charles! Way to go.
They will just follow the Cuban cigars in the US model.
Here is how it works.
Entrepreneurs create huge warehouses somewhere in Eastern Europe—here is a video showing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8F39O2Q30A
On line companies are created selling the product.
They figure out how to export the product to “forbidden” destination—the US for Cuban cigars and future England for cigarettes.
They learn (by trial and error) how to disguise the packaging to minimize seizures—and they guarantee the customer that they will replace all seized items.
Since the “criminals” are offshore they are beyond the reach of domestic authorities.
In the US probably less than one tenth of one percent of imported Cuban cigars from Europe are seized—on average. Occasionally there are “flaps” where an exporter got stupid and Customs figured it out..this official .gov video shows the legendary “Chicago massacre” of 2010:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wYTT9dlsuc
Hint: When you are exporting illegal products bright yellow packaging is not a good idea....
;-)