&gt; If higher prices help reduce smoking, I&#x27;m for higher prices.<p>This may have worked but the article notes.<p>&gt; some economists believe that recent hikes have had little impact on consumption. They suggest that the majority of people who were going to stop because of price hikes might have already done so.<p>From the paper linked under &#x27;some economists&#x27;<p>&gt;  Estimates indicate that,
for adults, the association between cigarette taxes and either smoking participation or smoking intensity
is negative, small and not usually statistically significant. Our evidence suggests that increases in cigarette
taxes are associated with small decreases in cigarette consumption and that it will take sizable tax
increases, on the order of 100%, to decrease adult smoking by as much as 5%.<p>That suggests we may have reached the limit where additional taxes are able to reasonably achieve their goal. If the taxes aren&#x27;t actually working then I think something else should be done instead of just jacking up the price more and more.