French anti-smoking lobby: Plans for €12 per pack lack ambition

 The French government is considering raising the price of cigarette packets in the 2024-2027 period as part of discussions on how to finance the social security budget, while a leading anti-tobacco alliance and some parliamentarians criticised the measure as too lenient.

Read the original French article here. 

The government could raise the price of a packet of cigarettes to €12 from the start of 2024, government spokesman Olivier Véran told RMC on Monday (28 August).

But according to the French Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT), a lobby group that brings together anti-tobacco organisations, this measure is not up to the public health challenge.

“Only a strong and sustained policy will enable us to achieve an effective and lasting reduction in the prevalence of smoking in our country,” Loïc Josseran, ACT president, said in a press release published on Wednesday. (...)