“Tobacco lobbies are the winners,” denounces a tobacco specialist after the removal of the limit on one carton of cigarettes purchased in a European Union country

“Tobacco lobbies are the winners”, estimates Saturday March 30 Bertrand Dautzenberg, tobacco specialist, pulmonologist and president of the “Paris sans tabac” association, the day after the removal of the limit of 200 cigarettes, or a carton, that an individual was authorized to bring back from a other country of the European Union. A measurement “against public health”worries the tobacco specialist. “There, Europe and the Council of State decide that ultimately health is not very important but what is important is market freedom”he regrets.

“It’s completely stupid from a health perspective. And from an economic perspective too because cancers and heart attacks are very expensive for Social Security”he castigates. “It’s absolute stupidity, tobacco is the number one cause of preventable death”recalls the pulmonologist, adding that tobacco “must not respond to the laws of the market”. For the tobacco specialist, the abolition of the limit of 200 cigarettes amounts to telling the consumer to“go buy your cigarettes in a country where cigarettes are cheaper”. “You can get lung cancer or hemiplegia or a heart attack for seven euros a day instead of paying twelve euros a day”he laments.

At the end of September, the Council of State ordered the government to bring domestic law into line with European Union law. The directive states that member states cannot set the threshold lower than 800 cigarettes. But in the decree taken on Friday by the government, no threshold appears.

From now on, it is customs officers who will have to determine whether the cartridges brought back to France will be used for “personal consumption” or for contraband. According to the president of the anti-tobacco association, the term “personal consumption”, “wanted by dozens and dozens of tobacco lobbies” is too much “vague”. “There is no limit”regrets Bertrand Dautzenberg for whom “tobacco must comply with public health laws”.