Elsevier

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Volume 193, 1 December 2018, Pages 110-116
Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Full length article
Keeping smoking affordable in higher tax environments via smoking thinner roll-your-own cigarettes: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Four Country Survey 2006–15

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.07.047Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Smokers likely adjust the way they use Roll Your Own tobacco to keep it affordable.

  • Lower mean weight of RYO cigarettes was found in high tobacco price countries.

  • 2% yearly reduction in mean weight of RYO cigarettes in Australia and the UK.

  • RYO use was lower in countries that equivalize RYO and factory-made cigarette taxes.

  • RYO cigarettes significantly undertaxed relative to factory made in Australia/UK.

Abstract

Background

Roll-Your-Own tobacco (RYO) use is increasingly popular in many countries: it is generally cheaper than factory-made cigarettes (FM), and smokers can further reduce costs by adjusting the amount of tobacco in each cigarette. However, the level of risk of RYO compared with FM cigarettes is similar and does not meaningfully change with cigarette weight. We assessed the weight of tobacco in RYO cigarettes across jurisdictions with differing tobacco taxes/prices and over time.

Method

Six waves of the International Tobacco Control 4 Country longitudinal study of smokers and recent ex-smokers, providing 3176 observations from exclusive RYO users covering 2006–15, are used to calculate the weight of tobacco used in RYO cigarettes in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. Multilevel regression analyses were used to compare weights across countries, socio-demographic factors, and over time.

Results

Smokers in the UK and Australia, where tobacco is relatively expensive, show higher levels of exclusive RYO use (25.8% and 13.8% respectively) and lower mean weights of tobacco per RYO cigarette (0.51 g(sd 0.32 g) and 0.53 g(0.28 g)), compared with both Canada and especially the US (6.0% and 3.5%, and 0.76 g(0.45 g) and 1.07 g(0.51 g)). Smokers in the UK and Australia also exhibited a statistically significant year-on-year decrease in the mean weight of each RYO cigarette.

Conclusions

Taxation of RYO should increase considerably in the UK and Australia so that RYO and FM cigarettes are taxed equivalently to reduce RYO attractiveness and inequalities. Other measures to reduce the price differentials, including taxing RYO solely on weight, are also discussed.

Keywords

Tobacco
Roll-your-own
Hand-rolled
Taxation
Weight
ITC

Cited by (0)