How to quit smoking a nation (Canada)
Posted on 2020-05-17
This is not about economics. I write about economics. But I can not let this go. I think this is important, so I share it.
Everybody is against smoking, even the smokers themselves. But who already is hooked up, he or she can not quit. The key to quit a nation of smoking is to stop the supply of new people who gets hooked on to smoke. The youngsters. Right now, nothing works. Not the astronomical prices of cigarettes, nor the age limit. All our antismoking policies are like washing our feet in socks. You can do that, but it is not too effective. We need real change. Let us stop the supply of people who can get hooked on to cigarettes.
The idea is to declare cigarettes a controlled substance. Distribute it through existing infrastructure, like pot shops or pharmacies. Whichever is more practical. Everybody who smokes right now goes to the doctor and takes a saliva swab test that they are really smokers. They get a debit card style card to their name from the provincial government. With this card they go to the shop to buy the cigarettes. One or two packs a day. No more.
Nobody else can sell or buy cigarettes, only designated shops and designated people. Nobody’s rights are infringed. Every current smoker who needs it can get cigarettes.
You need to maintain a database system for this. Much like pharmacies handle prescription for medications. Very few people can abuse that. Only the issuance and the falsifiability of the cards need to be tightly controlled and the distribution of cigarettes to the stores.
The benefit of this would be enormous. New generations can not get cards, because they will fail the saliva test. But they can not get cigarettes, because they do not have a card. Of course, the black market! Well, yeah, there will be some, just like now. But the pressure for it will lower because smokers can freely get smoke and new generations can not get hooked onto it. Who does not know what smoke is, like the youngsters, does not go to the black market to get one.
In 50 years, the smokers of now will die out. No new generation is hooked on it.
And some economics. The cost to implement this is much lower compared to the enormous social cost of associated health care. Of course, it is not black and white, but it is doable. We just need the political will to do this.