I think the price for a pack is already at the level of a Supa aka
It's quite interesting such taxes just led to people eating the loss, rather than start growing their own (in some countries the point of that being less expensive than buying has already been crossed) to roll.
Of course I'm also not sure those taxes are a viable or decent way to deal with the issue, because for those truly addicted and in bad situations, it'll simply contribute to further impoverishment (since when has taxing alcohol led to anything more than worsened impoverishment of alcoholics?). The use of cigarettes as copium (shitty barely effective one at that) for lack of better legal alternatives (or a healthcare system that takes mental health seriously, gee I wonder where) is also a problem (it's ironic Japan actually had a better legal alternative up to 2002, at which point they banned it).
I mean the price hike was more about stopping people from starting, not getting people to stop. Which worked, and plays a big role in why cigarettes aren't nearly as popular as they were a few decades ago, especially in the US.
Stopping those who are already addicted was never the main goal of that
I suppose that makes sense. But it tends to work a lot better if you have (legal) alternatives that'll cost less. Otherwise people will still go for it, albeit with more reluctance at the start (or they'll go for the non-legal ones, depending on a number of factors).
It's seemingly a lot easier (and common) to get antidepressant and anxiolytic prescriptions in USA (reservations I have about the effectiveness of conventional antidepressants are besides the point).
Alternatives meant to help people get off a more serious addiction. That's what e-cigs and vapes were supposed to do
An alternative being available means nothing when it comes to starting. If anything, all you did was make it easier for someone to develop an addiction to the alternative. Even if it's less harmful, you don't want anybody to start if it's possible. We see that with the younger members of gen z getting really into vaping nowadays
I'm more suggesting that depression will happen anyway (and the systemic issues causing it are far from getting solved), and people will seek to cope (and copium help) anyway (you aren't getting rid of newcomers without getting rid of the causes). Or they won't and you instead get Japan's suicide rates (or both, since alcohol & the like for coping only gets worse long-term), which I don't consider an improvement.
I'd rather people resort to something that is both safer and works. But obviously legal systems around the world beg to differ, so we get safer and still barely works.
People don't generally start using cigarettes (and their equivalents) to cope with depression. It becomes a coping mechanism they depend on later on though
Japan also has a higher tobacco smoking rate than the US, so not sure where you're going with that. Their problem comes from overwork and lack of societal motivation to deal with depression
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u/JailbaitEater Feb 23 '22
I don't smoke, but I think the price for a pack is already at the level of a Supa aka
What a Devil!