The Cigarette PACK

On Tuesday 21^st 2015, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, the Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan parliament suspended any further debates on the Tobacco Control Bill following failure by the members of parliament to reach a consensus on various clauses. On 28^th July 2015, the same contentious bill was passed by the parliament of Uganda and is now awaiting presidential assent.

The bill that seeks to control the sale, promotion and use of tobacco related products was introduced in parliament in December 2011. It has faced a great deal of opposition from the private sector, the law society, human rights activists ….who all seem to have qualms about it.

While I listened in keenly to some of the provisions, one of the clauses caught my attention. Apparently, some of our dear legislators proposed that selling of one cigarette stick should be banned and have cigarettes sold in packs. According to them, this is intended to reduce and deter the purchase of cigarettes. This belief hinges on the impression that cigarettes will now be expensive to buy and will eventually cause some of the smokers to quit. I don’t think this will curtail smoking, on the contrary we may see an increase in cigarette sells and consumption.

It’s a known fact that cigarette smoking is so prevalent among the poor communities or individuals. This doesn’t mean the rich don’t smoke; they actually do smoke but not more than the low income earners. The socio-economic factors drive a broad array of opportunities and decisions that have an impact on behavioral patterns.  Chronic stress of poverty compels unhealthy behaviors and this is not any different in Uganda. Research conducted by the UK University of Bath found out that money Ugandan households spent on tobacco every week could have bought eight liters of fresh milk or two loaves of bread.  They also found that households’ weekly expenditure on tobacco was equivalent to the price of three and a half kilogram’s of maize flour during the same period. The results also showed that money spent by a parent on tobacco could buy their children a set of primary school exercise books or 21 ball-point pens. It was concluded that these households would potentially spend 39 per cent more on five selected food items if they didn’t spend on tobacco, yet these families anguish in dire poverty and emptiness. The irony is that the people, who would afford it the least, consume it the most.

Most of the tobacco consumers are actually struggling addicts, to them smoking meets a need that can’t be met by something else. Cigarette smoking serves as that “loyal friend”. If I am an addict of something, you don’t force me to buy it in full force (buy a pack) because only then do you cause me to consume more of it on a daily basis than would otherwise have been. I want to relate this to my sweet tooth and insatiable need for cake which am gradually fighting to surmount.  Many a times, I buy myself a huge cake that could be served to thirty people. But yes, it’s only for me to eat.  If there are days I look forward to going back home after a day’s work, it’s when I have cake in the house, this doesn’t mean I didn’t pack about 15 cut pieces for my breakfast and mid morning snack. First thing when I enter the house, is going straight to where the cake is…usually my kitchen- the speed at which I eat it-I will let you figure that out. Precisely, the cake that could be served to thirty people or consumed in two weeks if one was to eat it singly (say they don’t suffer from the same anxiety ); is eaten in a week’s time or less.  There’s always that unrelenting temptation with something that you like.

So what happens when you force this tobacco addict to buy a pack of cigarettes? Your guess is as good mine.  And this whole perception of thinking it will be more expensive to buy doesn’t entirely work. When you can’t do without something, you shall always and I mean always find a way of getting it. There’s a lot of illicit tobacco trade going on, so much of it being sold on the black market-bottom line is that tobacco users shall find means to buy that cigarette pack- smoke it very fast because they have many pieces at their disposal and move on to get another pack. Whether it means engaging in crime, they shall do whatever it takes; remember most of them suffer from the frustrations that poverty inflicts on them.

One would think that taxes as high as 200% would make these tobacco products more expensive to buy.  May be yes may be not…countries with high tobacco taxes suffer an illegal tobacco problem. A case in point is Ireland which has exceptionally high tobacco taxes and prices but has a significant problem. Uganda Revenue Authority alone looses over 600million from illegal tobacco trading.  The money that the government of Uganda spends treating tobacco related diseases is equally high, not to mention untimely deaths, starving families due to income diversion and so much more.

Issues like sensitization in the most affected communities should not be undermined rather than only focus on regulation. I recall an incident where I reminded a friend who smokes about the diseases his most likely to suffer, his response threw me in shock…”why should I die with functioning/healthy lungs?” he replied.

Now, if a learned person can excuse his smoking lifestyle to such a belief, what will that person in the rural community say or do, I mean he has no idea that it could be a cause for his/her early death.

With this controversial bill now passed, I pray that we shall live to see few people smoking, many people quitting and protection of that none-smoker being enforced; whether it will achieve the projected result or create a worse situation-that is left to be seen.

The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.