Tobacco Facts.

Statistics show that even the rise of cigarette prices can not make smokers to quit.
Many smokers think that higher cigarette prices would make them healthier.

There is plenty of evidence that smoking is very bad for people, and almost as much evidence that people smoke fewer cigarettes if they are expensive.

But “healthy smokers” are not the same thing as happy smokers.
If smokers are rational, they will not believe such a thing. But if smokers are wracked by temptation and are trying unsuccessfully to quit, then higher prices might make them happier by encouraging them to smoke less or even to stop entirely.

Researchers reported that people before deciding whether to light up, they compare the health risks of smoking, the possible social and psychological benefits, and the fact that it is habit-forming.

Rather than acting rationally, smokers are helpless puppets who will pay any price for a smoke. If so, expensive cigarettes are bad news for them making them poorer without encouraging them to quit. But that possibility doesn’t fit the facts: We know that smokers respond to price signals by smoking less.

Researchers found that smokers also smoke less if prices are expected to rise at some later stage. Smokers also think about their future and recognize their own addiction, because a self-diagnosed addict who expects prices to rise might try to begin the difficult process of quitting before the habit becomes expensive.

Smokers are neither puppets nor ultra rational robots, but simply creatures of flesh and blood. They recognize the risks and would like to quit but keep valuing the short-term bliss of the nicotine hit over the longer-term benefits of kicking the habit. For smokers who fit this description, expensive cigarettes can indeed be a blessing by encouraging them to cut down or quit.

Researchers looked at two large sets of data on overall happiness, one covering Canada and one the United States. They compared what happened to happiness in U.S. states and Canadian provinces where cigarette taxes rose. But the results did point in the direction of the temptation model: Where cigarette taxes rise, “potential smokers”—the people whose age, class, income, and domestic circumstances suggest that they are likely to smoke—are happier.

So when the tobacco industry raises prices, at least it may be spreading a little cheer.
So the cigarette prices rise will not get people to give up. The reason why there are so many smokers, drinkers and drug users is that their lives does not seem to be all that promising and are escaping from it. If the government really cared, it would tax the high earners more and give it to the poorest people so maybe they might want to live a bit longer.

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