One of the knock-on effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku district of northeastern Japan has been a shortage of goods in certain sectors of the Japanese economy.
Badly hit have been car manufacturers by a shortage of auto parts. Also affected have been the nation's smokers as popular brands of cigarettes such as Mild Seven Lights disappeared from convenience stores and vending machines across the country, because of one of Japan Tobacco's four cigarette filter factories being put out of action.
Other countries such as the USA increased their exports to try and plug the nicotine deficiency but empty shelves were a sorry sight for nicotine addicts.
Cigarette smoking in Japan also suffered a massive plunge in the first quarter of 2011 as the nation's smokers declined at the fastest rate since records began being compiled.
All good news for those that hate smoking, but further pain for those that rely on the weed.
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