Cigarette price and smoking

Sir,

The report on “cigarette price and smoking” is very interesting.[1] Al-Mohrej et al. noted that “increasing the price of popular cigarettes pack from 2.67 US dollars to 8.27 US dollars is expected to lead to smoking cessation in a large number of smokers in the Saudi population.[1]” In fact, smoking is the public health problem around the world. There are several attempts to reduce the smoking rates. Several methods have been implemented for years. Focusing on the pricing, Smith et al. reported that “reduction in nicotine content is equivalent to a reduction in the reinforcement value of smoking-an assumption made by the unit price approach.[2]” However, this method has to be used accompanied with others. In Australia, the combined method, “stronger smoke-free laws, tobacco price increases and greater exposure to mass media campaigns” is confirmed for usefulness in reducing of smoking prevalence.[3] Finally, it should be noted that increasing cigarette price might reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking but the smoker might change to use other things (such as leafs) for smoking instead.