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The World Health Organization is discussing a Global Tobacco Tax which would see prices of conventional cigarettes here in the US skyrocket. The WHO event in Moscow is closed to the public and even media — creating quite a lot of frustration — with the intention of getting things done rather than just talking about getting things done.

According to the Washington Post, if the global tobacco tax succeeds, a pack of cigarettes here in the US could easily cost $33 or more. This would force most smokers to either quit of cut down on the habit tremendously — which is exactly what the WHO is hoping for.

Being the global politics and policy experts we are here at ECA, our understanding is that the WHO is granted authority to tax tobacco globally through the power of magic. To be clear, we don’t know why the WHO has this power — and we assume Big Tobacco will fight it. Others might fight it as well for fear that the WHO might place global taxes on everything unhealthy from fast food to alcohol.

But really, tobacco is the biggest global culprit by far. The global tax would nail it for roughly 70% of retail value. By the time to product gets to the user, that could easily end up tripling the price. But if this does happen, e-cigs could be even further reinforced as the nicotine delivery option of choice for the future.

You can read more on the tax here.