Posted on September 16, 2008 - by Knox

More Underage Smokers Despite Price Increase?

Underage smoking has been an issue ever since the existence of cigarettes. I browsed through the web and found out that Singapore’s underage smokers are rising despite the high increase of cigarettes prices. The article wrote,

“More underage youngsters have been caught smoking in the first two months of 2008 compared to the corresponding period over the last two years, data from Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority said Tuesday. During January and February, 1,164 people under the age of 18 were nabbed, more than the 1,113 caught in the first two months of last year and 1,069 in 2006.Health officials fear last year’s 12-month record of 6,584 could be broken again..”

With this, there can only be two reasons. Firstly, parents give their young adults too much money. And secondly, too many rich spoiled kids in Singapore. Discussing this topic reminds me of my younger days. Most of the smokers that I know of started smoking since they were in Secondary School. Back in my time, cigarettes only cost like $3 to $4 for a pack of 10 sticks. And back then, the kids weren’t as rich as they are now. We used to share few cents to a dollar to buy a cigarette. But now, there is no such thing as a 10 stick a pack cigarette.

All cigarettes in Singapore comes in a pack of 20 sticks and may cost up to $11 a pack. By only selling 20 sticks per pack, everyone in Singapore who wants to smoke has no choice but to buy it, thus making Singaporeans smoke more. The underage kids on the other hand, may not afford to buy a pack of cigarette by themselves, so, they would “drag in” more friends to join to smoke as to share the cost. Well, let me do some calculations.

Back then, if each kid would share $1, only 4 smoking kids would be smoking. Now, if each kid were to share $1, you will need 10 or 11 underage kids in order to buy a pack of cigarettes, therefore, this is the result of increasing the sticks per pack and the cost.

However, the more the Singapore Government try to make it’s citizen quit smoking, the more the number of smokers increase. In my personal point of view, the most ridiculous thing that we have to put up with are the “Smoking & Non-Smoking Area”. Why I say it’s ridiculous, simple. Even outside, say for example a coffee shop, you have to sit in a tiny corner which only has 1 or 2 tables for smokers and the rest are non smokers table.

When the smoker starts smoking, the smoke will eventually “pass by” the non smoking area too. So, I don’t see the point why smokers just aren’t allowed to sit down anywhere and smoke?