One the one hand, I have to say that I agree with the intention of the government of wanting to increase the price of cigarettes in Malaysia. Their hope is that the sharp hike will deter people from smoking.

Currently, a pack of cigarettes costs RM17 and the plan is to bring it up to RM21.50 per pack. This will be part of the Tobacco Products and Cigarettes Bill that will be tabled in Parliament sometime next year.

Logically, the increase of price should be something that will make smokers think twice before reaching for the lighter. Unfortunately, smoking is an addiction and addicts will always find a way to get their fix, and many would continue to part with their money.

So, on the other hand, I don’t believe that increasing the price of cigarettes will do anything to deter smokers who are already smoking. They are either willing to spend or they will just turn to the other alternative, which is looking for and buying illicit cigarettes.

Illicit cigarettes aren’t that difficult to get. Currently, the sale of illegal cigarettes amounts to up to 57.1 percent of the legal sales of cigarettes in the country based on a Nielsen Malaysia study conducted in December 2016 and this is definitely a big loss in taxes for the government.

Also, according to Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya, all the anti-smoking campaigns that have been executed by the government have resulted in no significant results. He noted that the government has spent RM2 million a year since 2004 on these campaigns.

I think we need to realise that countries that are considered third world have the highest number of smokers compared to those that are first world. One can deduce that this is because of the actual health awareness that exists and that people want to be healthier.

So maybe all these anti-smoking campaigns might not be the solution. What could probably be the better solution is actually trying to promote and encourage the desire of having a healthy lifestyle among Malaysians.

What I mean is that we should not focus on trying to create anti-smoking awareness, but to encourage everyone to be healthy overall...