The poor and working class may complain of discrimination, but the health ministry’s recommendation to ban the sale of loose cigarettes is a crucial step in fighting the harmful habit of tobacco smoking in the country.

The poor and working class may complain of discrimination, but the health ministry’s recommendation to ban the sale of loose cigarettes is a crucial step in fighting the harmful habit of tobacco smoking in the country.

By choking the availability of loose cigarettes, the government is planning to curtail the habit of about 70 percent of smokers. By massive raise of prices by both the union and state governments and banning it in public places by the Supreme Court, smoking has been made a difficult pastime. Now with loose cigarettes also disappearing, one can certainly expect a huge fall because curtailing availability is a key step in reducing any form of substance abuse. Smoking is considered the simplest form of abuse and addiction - easy to pick up and very hard to leave. Remember, once an addict, a smoker is forever a recovering addict and hence can fall back into the habit any time.

Does the reduction in availability work? It certainly does. A Canadian study in 2011 on retailing tobacco products shows that reducing the availability directly reduces the habit, particularly among the youth. The policy recommendations of the study included limiting the retail outlets as well. The comparison it drew was from regulation of alcohol availability that reduced consumption.

In fact the union and state governments can be proud that their concerted efforts in raising prices, preventing people from smoking in public places and discouraging public display of smoking (in films) have worked. According to a British Medical Journal (BMJ) study, cigarette smoking in Indian men had dropped from 33.8 percent in 1980 to 23 percent in 2012. This is a remarkable achievement. If at least half of the 70 percent consumers of loose cigarette get frustrated by the hardship smoking entails, this can be certainly brought down by half.

Such a situation will be an enormous victory for India, because after China (300 million), India has the second highest number of smokers (120 million) in the world. Not surprisingly, an estimated 900,000 people die from smoking related illnesses. According to the Supreme Court, smoking costs the country about 13,500 crore every year because of illnesses and loss of productivity.

Interestingly, China is also following in India’s footsteps with a proposed ban on smoking in public places as well as in films and TV shows. It’s also planning to ban advertising, sponsorship and promotion of tobacco products. Like India, China is a signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which also advises prohibition of the sale of loose cigarettes.

The biggest criticism for the latest government move will be that it spares the rich because they can still smoke by buying cigarettes in packets. In the interest of the poor and the fact that bulk of the smokers are consumers of loose cigarettes, this is a progressive discrimination. After all, when they fall sick because of smoking, it will be the poor who will be disproportionately burdened. The same argument is applicable to states which had stopped selling pint sized alcohol bottles which are consumed mostly by the poor and the working class.

The government’s move however, will be met with black marketing, fake products and various other forms of ingenuity, not only by the desperate smokers and vendors, but also by the companies that profit from tobacco. Companies may manufacture packets with fewer cigarettes and the street corner panwallas will still try to illegally sell loose cigarettes at a premium. The fake product market, which already makes fake cigarettes, will now have a new reason to make more money. Some might even shift to beedis. As was seen in drinkers in states where the small bottles disappeared, smokers might also resort to pooled-purchase.

The biggest obstacle to the move will be its implementation because cigarette retail is so widespread. For example, although public smoking is banned, people still smoke in public places. The cops are either unaware of the ban or don’t care. Even if they do, at least some of them find it an opportunity for harassment and make some extra bucks. Now, if they are asked to keep a watch on the panwallas as well, it will be a great opportunity for harassment.

The loose cigarettes strategy will certainly work to some level, but to make it more effective, as many countries did, cigarettes should disappear from the streets. The government(s) should drastically cut down the number of outlets selling cigarettes. Given the burden of diseases and depletion of family resources that smoking causes, India doesn’t need so many people selling cigarettes. This strategy has worked well against alcohol and cigarettes in many parts of the world.