Are cigarettes making a comeback?

For the first time in two decades, cigarette sales are up in the United States, according to the latest data. Explanations.

Nicolas Berube
The Press

Increase in 2020

For the first time in 20 years, cigarette sales rose in 2020 in the United States, according to the latest data from the US federal government. It is unclear whether the sales are due to more people smoking, smokers increasing their cigarette consumption during the pandemic, or a combination of the two.

203.7 billion

This is the number of cigarettes sold in the United States in 2020, according to the US federal government. The previous year, 202.9 billion cigarettes were sold.

In Quebec ?

In Quebec, the most recent data do not show an increase in the sale of cigarettes, notes Flory Doucas, co-director and spokesperson for the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control. “Quebec and Canadian statistics do not reveal an increase in smoking, but the statistics are not instantaneous, they reflect what was happening a year or a year and a half ago. One of the fears is that the vaping trend among young people will ultimately lead to an increase in cigarette sales. American studies show that a young person who vapes has twice the risk of becoming a cigarette smoker than a young person who does not vape. “The gains of the fight against tobacco, we often think that we cannot lose them, says M^me Doucas. In fact, no, we must pursue the fight rigorously because cigarettes have not disappeared, they are still accessible. »

1.1 million

This is the number of people who smoke in Quebec, reports the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health (CQTS). The organization notes that nearly 400,000 people are living with a serious smoking-related illness in the province.

1^er rank

That’s where smoking ranks on the list of preventable causes of illness and death in Canada. Some 48,000 people die of it in the country every year, and hundreds of thousands more have chronic illnesses due to smoking. In Quebec, 13,000 people die from smoking each year, according to Quebec Public Health. Smoking can cause more than 30 types of cancers and chronic diseases.

New Zealand bans new generations from smoking

New Zealand made headlines around the globe in December when it announced it would raise the legal age to buy tobacco by one year each year from 2027. People who turn 18 by that date will therefore in theory never be able to start smoking, since they will never reach the age to buy cigarettes. “We want to make sure that young people never start smoking, so we will criminalize the sale or supply of tobacco products to new cohorts of young people,” explained Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. The island intends to recover in reduction of health costs what it will lose in revenue from taxes collected on tobacco products.

Reluctance of Quebec elected officials

It has been eight years since the Quebec government raised taxes on cigarettes. “Since then, any new increase has been shelved,” says Flory Doucas. Today, it is in Quebec that legal cigarettes cost, and by far, the least expensive in Canada: it would be necessary to practically double the cost of taxes to reach the national average. » M^me Doucas finds it difficult to explain the reluctance of Quebec elected officials in this regard. “Taxes are the most effective way to curb smoking. Contraband has been at 11% of the market for 10 years… The problem is the tobacco industry lobby, which finances associations of retailers. Elected officials do not feel like they see the industry when they talk to a neighborhood trader, but in many cases their speech is a direct influence of the tobacco industry. »

Decrease in France

In France, tobacco sales fell by 6.2% in volume in 2021 compared to 2020, noted an analysis relayed by Agence France-Presse. However, the prevalence of smoking is much higher there than in Quebec: more than 3 out of 10 French adults say they smoke.