ADB: High tobacco prices save lives | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

ADB: High tobacco prices save lives

Published: 13 Nov 2012 at 17.58
Online news:

Smoking-related deaths in Thailand and four other Asian countries where tobacco use is amongst the highest in the world would drop by 20% if cigarette prices were doubled by increased taxation, according to an Asian Development Bank study relased on Tuesday.

Photo by Jetjaras na Ranong

The Manila-based bank claimed that even a 50% price hike would save 27 million people from dying from smoking-related diseases and cause nearly 67 million current smokers to quit, or youths not to take up the habit, in China, India, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

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banphai
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Discussion 3 : 13 Nov 2012 at 20.083
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I am not at all a fan of smoking cigarettes. Nevertheless, reducing the incidence of tobacco smoking does not save lives. It will extend lives, but more people will die of other inevitably terminal conditions like dementia, which has a very high social cost and is extremely distressing to families. This 'saving lives' plank is simply propaganda engineered by the politically correct, and I, for one, am growing tired of it.
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erik1
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Discussion 2 : 13 Nov 2012 at 19.012
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okay, what's next ? you can't drive a car because you can have an accident and die ?
Everyone who smokes, knows he can die because he smokes. And isn't this what it's all about :

A 50% increase in cigarette prices would also generate more than US$24 billion (936 billion baht) in additional tax revenues annually, the study said.
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bluebottle
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Discussion 1 : 13 Nov 2012 at 18.571
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Name me another country where raising the price has reduced smoking.Education has to be the way. Increasing the tax will swell the coffers but that is about all.Dose the price of drugs deter people, no.
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