The recent increase in the Illinois cigarette tax is an example of how making smoking more expensive can convince some people it's time to quit. For example, being a smoker in Chicago can easily cost $300 a month, which is more than twice as expensive as a monthly prescription of medications to help a person quit smoking.
But even when the cost of smoking convinces a person to quit, it can be hard to kick the habit, said Dr. Phillip McAndrew, an internal medicine physician and occupational health expert at Loyola University Health System.
"Nicotine really is that addictive. It's a hard battle, but every one that we win, including increasing the cost of cigarettes through taxes, brings individual smokers to the tipping point where the pain of smoking overcomes the joys of nicotine and they quit," McAndrew noted. "The tipping point could be a life-altering health experience, but often it's the impact on the pocketbook that makes people really consider quitting," he explained in a Loyola news release.
