It is an "entirely important" threshold, says Bertrand Dautzenberg. Sunday, March 1, will apply a new rise in the price of cigarette packs, including the most consumed brand in France, Malboro, will cross the symbolic mark of 10 euros. A symbol, but not only, according to the tobacco specialist and ex-pneumologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, who points to the effectiveness of price increase policies in public health.
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"Raising prices is quite effective"
"The experience that we have had in recent years shows that increasing prices by one euro per year is quite effective," said the expert. "While during the first cancer plan, when Jacques Chirac declared war on tobacco, we sold four billion cigarettes a year, we are now below 40 billion", he points out, adding that this drop is accelerating : "Last year, we reduced tobacco sales in France by more than 7%."
For Bertrand Dautzenberg, the roadmap is therefore clear: "the package must continue to increase by one euro per year for the next four or five years, and make 15 euros in 2025". The doctor brushes aside the argument consisting in saying that these increases penalize mainly the less well-off French people, the biggest consumers of tobacco. "The most precarious smoked more than the richest, it's true. But for three years, there has been a collapse in smoking among the most precarious who is more important than that of the most favored. The difference between the two is decreasing", he said.
Rolling tobacco also on the rise
The specialist also targets smokers who have turned to rolling tobacco, "cheaper and more toxic". "The 30-gram package of roll-your-own tobacco will increase, and will gradually catch up with the price of ordinary cigarettes," he said, recalling the "complete free treatment for smoking cessation".