Can We Facilitate Quit Smoking by Neglecting the Grassroot Population?

Smoking addiction is now spread all over like an epidemic and the very basic hurdle that we face in combating the addiction of smoking is that a huge portion of the smoking addicted men and women are illiterate and live below the poverty line. Smoking is equally common among the richest and the poorest. The anti-smoking measures reach out only to the educated sections of the society. They generally fail to transcend the boundary beyond the lower middle class. Even the ban on smoking and modern anti-smoking measures such as the quit smoking drugs like chantix fail to reach out to the lower strata of the society.    

However, bans are more often implemented in places commonly frequented by the affluent and educated sections of the society and as far as chantix is concerned, it is noteworthy that people prefer to buy chantix online. Chantix, also known as champix in the European countries and several other prescription-based quit smoking drugs can be easily procured from various online resources after getting hold of chantix prescription. Chantix is most popular among all anti-smoking medicines for which majority of the smokers buy chantix to do away with their nicotine addiction.

Quit smoking drugs is an option that is non-existent to victims of poverty until and unless government authorities decide to distribute these drugs for free of cost or at a highly subsidized rate which is not a possibility in the near future. Awareness against smoking is the only means that is workable in helping people to get rid of smoking addiction. Until and unless the grassroot section in the society is made aware of the hazards of smoking and attempts are initiated to help them give up smoking, there won’t be significant improvement in getting rid of smoking addiction. 

The difficulty is that though anti-smoking measures are very stringent and effective in the developed countries, the scenario is not all that same and impressive in the under developed and the developing countries where the majority is poverty stricken. In these countries, the anti-smoking measures are not that effective even amongst the educated sections of the society. The thought of taking these measures to the grassroot level is still a distant dream in these countries.

Smoking is nonetheless a cheap addiction. Almost everyone can afford to take a puff. This is one of the reasons for which it is so common among the poverty-ridden people In addition, addiction to smoking kills the appetite and as such most of the people living below the poverty line take to smoking. Not only the smoking of cigarettes is a prevalent addiction but also any form of tobacco intake is very much common among these people and especially among those living in the third world countries.

But, unfortunately nothing substantial is being done to minimize the addiction of smoking among these people. There is a pathetic lack of awareness against smoking addiction in the lower section of the society. In spite of making great inroads into the field of IT and regardless of being touted as one of the emerging economies of the world, India still has the highest number of people living the poverty line. The rate of poverty is highest in this country and tobacco addiction in general is quite rampant among the Indian population. Along with smokeless tobacco and cigarette smoking, another form of indigenous cigarette called ‘bidi’ is very common among the lower class Indian population. In some parts of the country, namely the north east, bidi smoking is highly prevalent in comparison to the rest of the country. Therefore, it is not surprising that child mortality, still born babies, early death and high death rates are very common in this part of the country.