Big tobacco companies have been manipulating the prices of cigarettes for more than a decade to undermine government attempts to deter people from smoking, research suggests. A study published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research has found that the increasing availability of cheap tobacco has hampered public health efforts to discourage smoking, the leading cause of preventable death. They found that, by switching brands, smokers could buy tobacco in shops at the same prices they paid in 2002. By 2014, the cheapest roll-your-own tobacco cost £1.63 for 10 grams, enough to make 20 cigarettes. There were large increases in the tax on tobacco over the 12 years but the price of cigarettes rose only by an average of 10p per cigarette.

Source: The Guardian July 29, 2017 23:03 UTC