Should cigarettes be declared illegal in 2030?

The CEO of Philip Morris International, Jacek Olczak, has officially asked the British government to ban cigarettes in the next ten years. In his appeal, the company's CEO compared cigarettes to petrol cars, arguing that «the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone». A move that seems to be counterintuitive, as a possible ban would eliminate about half of Philip Morris' revenue, but which is actually an attempt to reposition tobacco companies, which want to eliminate traditional cigarettes and move towards alternatives such as vaping and electronic cigarettes.

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Recently, in fact, Philip Morris has been subject to criticism from anti-smoking activists after the company made a one billion offer for the British pharmaceutical company Vectura, which deals with anti-asthma products. More generally, activists complain that tobacco companies, while wanting to reposition themselves on the market, continue to sell cigarettes that, according to the World Health Organization, kill eight million people a year. Decisive government action, according to Olczak, would reduce the confusion of smokers, who would perceive alternatives to smoking as harmful as real cigarettes.

Cigarettes should therefore increasingly disappear from uk shelves over the next decade, in line with Philip Morris' new goal of providing consumers with healthier alternatives to traditional cigarettes and, therefore, starting to sell new categories of less "politically incorrect" products. As Olczak, who became the company's new CEO last May, pointed out: «The first choice for consumers is they should quit smoking. But if they don't, the second best choice is to let them switch to the better alternatives». According to the company, the new goal will be to bring more than half of its revenues from smoke-free products by 2025. According to NPR, Philip Morris' initiative would be in line with the UK's goal of reducing the average number of smokers to 5%, making the country smoke-free.