If you're a smoker you've seen the transformation in the past few years.Smoking has been banned in many public places, including bars and restaurants — but if  New Zealand has its way, smoking will find itself snuffed out!

The price of cigarettes in New Zealand is the highest in the world, and it just added on a 40% tax hike on tobacco that will raise the price of a pack of cigarettes to upwards of $15 in the next four years.

The goal is to price the cost of cigarettes so high that people will quit. One in five New Zealanders still smoke today. Studies show that 10% have quit as the prices rose last time, and many smokers cut back. About 20 percent of New Zealand adults now smoke, down from 30 percent in 1986. Supporters of the new tax also point out that cigarette sales during that time period have fallen more sharply, suggesting that even people who haven’t given up smoking altogether have certainly cut back as prices rose.

 

 

[Associated Press] Raises Prices To Make Them Quit!

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