END OF ROAD FOR ROLLIES?
Tax hike plea in war on smoking
ROLL-UP cigarettes are facing a huge tax hike.
Health campaigners are demanding the price increase to force smokers to quit.
The taxman currently gets 30p for every ready-made cigarette but takes just half that for the equivalent hand-rolled fag.
And a shock study has found smokers who roll their own cigarettes are less likely to qui the habit than those who buy packs of 20.
The research found just a sixth of those who use loose tobacco are “highly motivated to quit” compared to a fifth who smoke ready-made cigarettes.
Smokers of rolling tobacco spend nearly half of what those who smoke packet cigarettes do – paying an average of £14.33 a week compared to £26.79 for the ready-made version..
And it was discovered that although those who roll their own and those who buy ready-made fags smoke the same amount, cost was the main reason for not wanting to stop. So campaigners have now called for higher taxes on rolling tobacco to spur rollie smokers into stopping. Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “The evidence is clear, access to cheaper roll-your-own tobacco makes it less likely smokers will quit.”
Dr Sarah Jackson of University College London, lead author of the study, said: “Cost is consistently reported by smokers as one of the primary motives for quitting. “Roll-your-own users may be more able to afford to continue to smoke and therefore less inclined to try to quit.”