🪙 Tobacco stands on the side of poverty
Tobacco wears the face of comforting poverty while standing on poverty's side.
Tobacco tends to get talked about as just a little luxury.
But the WHO explains that spending on tobacco squeezes basic spending like food and housing, and is tied to poverty. In low- and middle-income countries especially, the burden of tobacco-related illness and death tends to fall heavier.
This is a story we'd rather not look at.
People who buy cigarettes think they're buying them with their own money. And in a sense that's true.
But inside a household's wallet, money doesn't come with names attached. Money spent on tobacco is also money that could have gone somewhere else.