If you look at smoking rates right now, Switzerland isn't that much worse than neighbouring countries. But if you look at young people, then Switzerland is trailing behind.

I'm half swiss, half from New Zealand, and difference is crazy! In NZ it's down to 3.2% for young people. I'm not going to pretend that I know exactly how this happened, but one clear reason is that the government has made smoking incredibly expensive. A packet of cigarettes in New Zealand costs about twice what it costs in Switzerland.

Clearly, the government here is doing something wrong. We knew that smoking causes cancer in the 1960s. Now it's over 60 years later, and Switzerland (and I would say most of Europe) still hasn't done much about it. But clearly some policies work, and by not implementing them, the government is ensuring that future generations will continue to die because of this.



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seriously_perplexed

33 comments

  2. Helping others is great but you can only do so much before impeding on others personal choices and freedoms. We’ve seen what prohibition has done in the past. People have more knowledge and medical reports than ever before, but most people choose to just live it and learn it.

  5. Well duh we smoke because we want cancer!

    I don’t wanna live that long in that shitty world and I don’t want to actively kill myself so a decrease of lifespan is a pretty good deal.

  6. imagine the health system not having to care about the late effects of smoking and all the lung transplants, COPD and other BS that people do to themselves and the industry hurting the people with

  9. I would be in favor of higher insurance premiums rather than more expensive cigarettes.

  10. Die Menschen, die auf eigenverantwortung appellieren, die sollen dann auch bitte den doppelten krankenkassenbeitrag bezahlen um ihre wörter und werte zu bestätigen.

  11. I got 2 people off nicotine addiction, still sad to see other get anxious, angry after 30 minutes of withdrawl.

    Also I work for a company that sells cigaretts and you can now order online

  12. I’m sure the fact that we’re one of the most conservative, if not the most conservative, countries on this map has nothing to do with it because conservatives never kow-tow to corporate lobbyists, let’s not jump to conclusions here.

    Having said that, though, I honestly have a couple of issues with this. It doesn’t tell me how much the people in question smoke – is it a pack a day or occasionally when they’re out with friends? The amount people smoke would tell us a lot more about the public health impact. I’d also like to know if this includes vaping or if it’s just cigarettes because if it doesn’t include vaping, these numbers tell us nothing.

    And finally, in my experience, the larger problem particularly with the younger generation is actually nicotine pouches AKA Snus, which are very widespread at the moment and insanely addictive. I honestly get the impression nobody’s talking about them, and the kids have no idea what they’re doing to themselves with these fucking things.

  13. Pillar 2 and Pillar 3a is not enough to live a longer life.

  14. How everybody are ignoring people smoking on train stations and people smoking next to little kids was my biggest culture shock after moving here

  15. The price for cigarettes has actually already been raised significantly. Just FYI.

  18. It‘s a private decision, as long as no one is affected

  21. # Zückt eure Glimmstängel, die Ungarn holen wir auch noch ein!

  23. Actually wild how long our life expectancy is with all the smoking

  24. As a non smoker, even I was tempted because Swiss cigarettes smells good

  25. My observation is that public health initiatives are lacking in CH. Routine physical exams to catch serious disease early, nope, not covered, we’ll treat it later when it’s terminal. Public health campaigns to demonize smoking and reduce smoking rates, nope. Suggest the yearly flu vaccine for heard immunity, prevent lost man hours and unnecessary GP visits, nope. Complain about rising health insurance costs and being clueless about the causes … ding-ding-ding!

  26. Yeah, it sucks. I can’t even waiting for the train or bus without inhaling that crap. Also terrible for the environment and people throwing their used cigarettes in the street. Just a disgusting habit that has got to go.

  27. No. String disagree. It is not a government’s job to manage, teach and nag people into certain behaviours by making things “incredibly expensive”, in no scenario. Banning smoking indoors in public places? Sure. Ban dangerous drugs? Certainly. Everything beyond that is not the government’s job.

  31. the paying part goes for pretty much anything, no? i dont drive a car, i still pay for roads, i dont need any goverment assistance, i still pay for it. maybe we need to abolish universal healthcare then? i do sports regularly, should you pay more if you dont?

  32. Make it expensive and let the tax revenue be bigger than associated health costs. But each to their own. If you want to smoke, you should be able to smoke.

  33. And they’re all on the train platforms, huffing away on what smells like either goat dung, weed or bubblegum

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