Should cigarette prices be raised?

France wants less smoky bars

The French government has decided to raise the price of cigarettes dramatically in order to discourage people from smoking.

But tobacconists are striking in protests, saying they will be forced out of business by people going over the border to buy cheaper cigarettes there.

Will the government's policy really deter smokers? Or is it just a good way of boosting government coffers?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

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The comments below reflect a balance of views received:

A message to all those people suggesting tobacco smokers should be made to pay for their health costs on the NHS - smokers contribute three times as much in tax as they cost in health care. So this argument is a non-starter. I am as anti-smoking as anyone (my father died young from smoking), but at least let's use some real facts to argue with and not emotions.
Chris R, UK

Price rises will not get people to give up. Giving them something to live for might help. 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.
Toby, Spain

Once you're addicted, you can't stop with it...so it is the root of the problem that has to be dealt with Simon, Belgium

I think cigarettes shouldn't be taxed like this. As so many already said: once you're addicted, you can't stop with it...so it is the root of the problem that has to be dealt with! We, the group of non smokers, have to encourage the smokers to quit smoking; there has to be social programs for these people. I can understand these people, because they smoke to express boredom! The story often goes like this: People have nothing to do anymore (after dinner for example) and then they put up a cigarette! The government have to look for a solution for this kind of problem, so really to the root, but I don't think they will recognise this as a major social issue - tax equals money for the state!
Simon, Belgium

Raising the price may not actually stop people from smoking, as some who are very much addicted to it can skip a meal even deny themselves a lot to buy it. I believe what can really help is if the company itself should be closed down universally.
Sandra Obokhai, Nigeria

Yes, instead of raising tax on useful items, the prices should be raised for cigarettes and alcohol, which potentially damage public health, and thus making them less accessible.
Shaista, UK

Smoking, like drinking alcohol and driving a car should be taxed to a level that stops poor people from taking part. The smaller number of people able to indulge in these "luxury" activities would then reduce their impact on the environment.
David, UK

There's a lot of claptrap talked here about smokers being a burden on the health service. Revenue from cigarette sales more than adequately covers this several times over. When are people going to want to tax ice cream and chips heavily as obesity is becoming the biggest killer in the UK?
John T, UK

Why does the EU (i.e. my taxes) subsidise tobacco growers through the absurd CAP system? Attack the problem at its roots (literally).
Malcolm, England

Raising the price is surely not a solution. Price increase will lead to a growing number of smugglers and thefts. Would it be any better? I do not think so. Why not giving a helping hand to those who want to quit, but do not have the strength, instead? For example, in Hungary drugs, which help smokers to quit, are more expensive then keep on smoking. Also special rehabilitation programmes should be available, like for drug addicts. It is an addiction, as it has been proved by many health organisations. The French government should rather focus on other alternatives, than on its income. In the long term it would be worthwhile.
Mary McCannon, Hungary

Depends if you smoke or not. Personally I don't, and although there is an argument that the treasury has become, to use an ironic turn of phrase, "too dependent" on revenue from tobacco taxes the likelihood of the demand for cigarettes crashing is remote enough for me to feel rather smug about never having smoked any tobacco in my entire life.. And anyway, we need the revenue for the NHS so we can treat those poor souls who can't - or won't - give up.
Steve, UK

Smokers cost the health service nothing. The tax taken is much more than the what it costs the NHS (look at the ASH website if you don't believe me). As for raising the costs of tobacco, I buy mine on the black market costing me about £25 for 200. How much is this costing the Government in lost revenue? I personally would like to see alcohol taxed much more heavily as it is just as antisocial as tobacco with drunks vomiting on the street, liver disease etc.
Kev, UK

I still smoke and will continue to smoke regardless of price, because I'm addicted Arik, Amherst, MA, USA

Raising prices only frustrates smokers and does not contribute in any way towards the desire to quit. I am a smoker who is fed up with the high prices of cigarettes in the North-East of the US (specificaly NYC--$7.00 a pack). Does this stop me from smoking? Guess what, I still smoke and will continue to smoke regardless of price, because I'm addicted. When smoking became too expensive for me what I did was search for alternative ways to purchase cigarettes at a cheaper rate. The bottom line is that cigarette smoking, like any physical addiction is something the body craves and a financial barrier is not a solution but rather a obstacle that leads to finding alternatives that may be illegal and/or even worse to one's health.
Arik, Amherst, MA, USA

If I were a drug addict (i.e heroin, etc.) I would be state subsidised to stay stoned. I would be pampered and my condition catered for. Nicotine is recognised as an addictive drug but smokers are vilified for it. The basis of this is the smell and the second-hand dangers, fair comment, but with the amount of chemicals spewed out into our air by motor vehicles, irrespective of the current fuels I question how much of the danger is actually cigarette smoke. But the second hand effects of the harder drugs seem to be discounted, muggings, burglaries, HIV.

Why so much airplay on smoking, simple, people smoke publicly, so they are an easy target, lip service is paid by the Government to helping people quit, but that's as far as it goes. We don't see major programs, or fully subsidised treatments for smokers. Guess what the bottom line is, people who buy cigarettes pour great amounts of money into government coffers, why would they really be serious about stopping smoking, it would be killing the goose that lay the golden egg.
P Thomas, Australia

When the link between a habit such as smoking and a disease such as lung cancer is so well established, people who choose to pursue the habit should be forced to pay for the consequences and pick up the NHS bill. Forget hiking cigarette prices - make smokers pay for their smoking related treatment.
Edward, UK

Though a fervent advocate of banning smoking outright, I am against the raising of cigarette prices. The duty on smoking is so high that the government relies heavily on the duty from it to subsidise many of its schemes. The higher the duty, the more reliant upon it the ruling administration become and the less likely that any parliament will ever ban smoking. It would be better to lower the price. We all know well the risks inherent in smoking. But those addicted are already hooked. Making them poorer would merely deprive them of other things that might divert them from their addiction. Those that want to learn to smoke (schoolchildren mostly, it seems) will not be deterred by the price (in truth knowing the elitist attitudes of many of them, lowering the price would make them seem less 'cool').
Chris Hollett, UK

Raising the price simply encourages smuggling, and takes away revenue from the country. When I smoked, I always used to buy my cigs from France, Spain, or Belgium, and now most of my smoking friends all buy their cigarettes on the black market (at around £25-30 a carton). The French only have to look at the amount of Britons buying cigs in France, and draw their own conclusions.
Sue Hudson, London, UK

Sounds very sensible, until you consider the consequences of the black market that will now inevitably arise. Increased crime and cheap cigs being traded in the schoolyard, whilst traditional tabacs will disappear from the local neighbourhood. Britain's has all these problems, and its border controls are far stricter. Nevertheless, raising taxes is probably the best way forward, but it won't work well unless Europe acts together.
Jon E, France

I reckon it will increase the appeal of the black market, and hence exacerbate the associated gang and organised crime. The best way to get people to stop smoking is show them someone dying of lung cancer.
Phil, UK

It is about time that cigarette prices were harmonised across Europe to stop the smuggling Roger Jackson, England

It's a step in the right direction. It is about time that cigarette prices were harmonised across Europe to stop the smuggling that is costing this country so much. Can't say the same about beer an wine though-we should harmonise those prices downwards!
Roger Jackson, England

There is no way this will have the desired effect. The Scandinavian countries already have huge taxes on alcohol; Finland at one time even has a coupons system I have heard. However, the Scandinavian countries haven't yet found out that it just doesn't work that way; they already have among the highest rates of alcoholism and people often have distilleries in their basements.
Graeme Phillips, Germany, normally UK

Increasing the price of cigarettes so dramatically seems to be a very drastic measure. However, this has to be put into context. In France, 50% of 15 years old smoke. Such operation should certainly put off some youngsters since the price of a packet is going to be more expensive
Sandy, France

Tax them to Kingdom come! LM Chilton, Belgium

As for the tax on cigarettes being a revenue raiser, why not? How much public money is spent on smoking related health problems? Bring on the time when smoking is seen as personally and socially irresponsible!
John Richardson, France

Tax them to kingdom come! Either all tax on tobacco products goes to the health service or all smokers should be made to have private health insurance.
LM Chilton, Belgium

I agree with Mr Chilton (Belgium) - smokers should have private health insurance. But then so should everyone. After all, as a smoker, why should I subsidise the health care of fast food fatties, couch potatoes, the promiscuous, alcoholics, bad drivers, skiers, rock climbers etc etc?
David, UK

What a wonderful idea! [It] Discourages smoking and raises money to get France's deficit in line with what they have promised. Sounds like a win-win situation here. Now if only they are listening in Berne ...
Thomas, Switzerland

Look at Britain - people still smoke and cigarettes are nearly £5 per pack. Jaime, UK

In Japan, cigarettes cost about £1.50 a pack. The result: about 70% of the adult male population are smokers. And this in an otherwise extremely health conscious nation I would say there is a definite link between the rate of smoking in a society and the cost of tobacco.
James Gowans, Japan

If a country wants to reduce smoking then just make tobacco products illegal. Increasing taxes on those products is a thinly veiled excuse to raise money for the government. Look at Britain - people still smoke and cigarettes are nearly £5 per pack.
Jaime , England

More money for cigarettes means less for the children. Paul, Netherlands

The more cigarettes cost, the more deeply a smoker inhales and the closer to the tar laden butt they smoke. Two additionally unhealthy activities for the nicotine addict. When the black market and cross border shopping is taken into account, raising the price of cigarettes would appear to be counter productive, and one way or another not beneficial to the health of the individual or the economy.
Peter Howlett, Spain

I'm a smoker but the cost of smoking is not an incentive to give up because I go to France or Belgium to by cigarettes. Even after the imminent price rises, it's still cheaper than here.
Jeff, UK

What better way for the government to boost its income and improve its weak finances than to place a heavy tax on the merchants of death?
Kent Suarez, US citizen in Taiwan

People will think twice before burning their money now Asrul Akmal, Malaysia

The most important thing is to try to put cigarettes out of reach of as many as people as possible especially children and teenagers. Increasing the price, will place cigarette as luxury commodity. People will think twice before burning their money now. I totally agree with the measure.
Asrul Akmal, Malaysia

This could be counter-productive; people stop smoking because it's too expensive, so they live longer. The government loses the tobacco tax income and then has to pay out more in pensions to a healthier older population. There again, less is spent on medical care for smoking related diseases.....
Chris, England

I believe that cigarette prices should be high BUT the government has to realize that this effects the poor more than the well to do. These tax increases seriously hurt lower income households and the children in those homes. More money for cigarettes means less for the children.
Paul Manwaring, Netherlands

Cigarettes place a burden on the public health system that must be paid for. However, they also relieve pressure on the pension system. Each country must do the math and see what works better for them.
Steve, Germany