Smokers react to dramatic rise in price of cigarettes
31 Jan 2012, 8:29 PM
Hawwa Lubna
Ahmed Lizneen was just 14 when he first smoked. What started as an “experiment for fun” has now become a habit – he has struggled to quit over the years, but to no avail.
“It was my friends who gave the cigarette to me first. I had it for fun. Then I also started buying. Not the whole pack, but a few cigarettes at a time as it was cheaper. Slowly it became an addiction. I tried to stop many times, but just could not,” Lizneen explained.
Alarmingly high tobacco consumption
Statistics reveal an alarming proportion of the Maldivian population – especially youth – have succumbed by one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced: the tobacco epidemic.
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