single cigs go the way of the dodo bird

I don't know if this is much of an issue for the general public or not, but it is definitely an issue for yeshiva boys. I have seen it with foreign workers as well.

Cigarettes are expensive. The country has been regularly increasing the purchase tax on cigarettes for years. This makes it, as so intended, very expensive, and thereby difficult for people with little to no expendable income to buy a pack of cigarettes.

The objective of this was ultimately to get all these people to stop smoking.

But it hasn't. At least, not for many.

There are many stores that have been selling individual cigarettes instead of the normal way, by the pack. I imagine they sell the individual cigarette at a premium, but, the point is, someone who cannot afford to walk into the makolet and buy a pack of cigarettes can walk in and buy one cigarette at a time.

No longer.

The legislative committee of the Knesset has approved a request by the Justice and Finance ministries to establish fines for the sale of individual cigarettes. Anyone caught selling an individual cigarette will be punishable with a fine of up to 4000nis.
source: Kol Hazman

That's a pretty expensive cigarette.

I wonder, though, what comes next, when this is discovered to not really work all that well, to not stop enough people from smoking? Maybe they should just cut to the chase and make smoking illegal..

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