Smokers pay the heavy price, some quit

SA’s controversial cigarette ban has pushed some smokers to the black-market, while others have kicked the habit.

A survey of more than 2,000 smokers by technology company M4Jam found while some are paying exorbitant prices, sourcing cigarettes through “backdoor suppliers” and local shops, others have stopped smoking because they refuse to buy brands that could be even more harmful.

“While the cigarette sales ban is in place, a third of smokers are still indulging one to three times a day, but just 9% of smokers have four to five smokes a day and another

9% are smoking more than five per day.

“Amazingly, 49% of smokers had stopped smoking during lockdown, choosing to avoid exorbitant prices or use lockdown as a good excuse to kick the habit,” the survey found.

To get themselves through, 44% of smokers had tried to buy in bulk before lockdown began on March 27 and only six percent still had some of those cigarettes left.

More than half of smokers who participated in the survey said they would not and did not attempt to buy black-market cigarettes during lockdown.

“When asked for their reasons for quitting, health considerations featured very prominently in responses,” said M4Jam CEO Georgie Midgley.

“Whether this will permanently affect the sales market for cigarettes after lockdown will be interesting to watch.”

The survey also showed that 36% of smokers agreed with the ban on cigarettes.