The state intends to raise the price of cigarettes. The exact amount is still being discussed, but the other measures including the new packaging, more rigorous restrictions regarding open-air restaurant surfaces, and royalties for salesman have already been coordinated. According to the data of the National Institute of Public Health, every year tobacco is fatal for 3,600 inhabitants of Slovenia. 1,300 persons annually get lung cancer, a disease with high mortality rate. The oncologist Mojca Unk says she doesn't judge smokers, but she knows that sooner or later she, or one of her colleagues, will see most of them.
A visit to the oncology department would help
"The risk for that happening is small when they are very young; I known I won't see them soon. But for those over sixty it is rather likely that they will come to see me," says the doctor at the Ljubljana Institute of Oncology. She told us that the visit to their clinic would be the best incentive for smokers to give up smoking, as smoking causes diseases which are a great burden for both the diseased person, and his/her family.
"The decision must be left to individuals"
"Cigarettes are harmful; it's a fact. We want every individual to make his/her own decision. We don't want the state's supervision, because today it might be about cigarettes, tomorrow about beer or wine, sweet drinks, fats… and the list could go on and on," claims Pia Barborič Jurjaševič, the general manager of the company Tobačna Ljubljana.
Tobačna Ljubljana: We are not a secret lodge, our operation is transparent
They warn that the uniform packaging envisioned by the bill would be "a gift for traffickers"; it will help the black market to flourish, as it will be much easier to infiltrate counterfeit cigarettes. They tried to explain to the state that the focus should be on education of the younger, and not on prohibition.