‘It Doesn’t Matter What you do’ – Exploring the Personal and Professional Ethics of Tobacconists in Australia Regarding Tobacco Sales, Illicit Tobacco, and Smoking

Tobacconists occupy a complex ethical position as legal retailers of harmful products and both participants and victims of the growing illicit tobacco trade (ITT) in Australia. This study explores the personal and professional ethics of Australian tobacconists in relation to the conduct of their business, and perspectives on ITT and customer behaviours. Qualitative ethnographic interviews were conducted with 12 tobacconist staff, owners, and managers. Drawing on theories of moral disengagement, moral drift, and harm reframing, we examine how participants justify tobacco retailing through strategies such as responsibility diffusion and strategic attribution of agency. Personal freedom and individual choice are often invoked to resolve conflicts within participant's personal ethics and reconstruct tobacco use as an exercise of autonomy. These narratives reflect broader debates in addiction science and drug policy and complicate the binary of moral actor versus industry proxy. Understanding these complexities within the ethics of tobacconists is essential to designing policies that engage retailers constructively in achieving the tobacco endgame.