Cigarettes are in the news again. A Federal judge just imposed strict new limits on tobacco advertising - no more "low tar" cigarettes - and Michael Bloomberg announced that he has set up a new foundation dedicated to starting a global anti-smoking campaign.
Personally, I think the solution is simple: raise the cigarette tax. If you want to decrease the numbers of smokers, that's the only proven solution. The distant threat of lung cancer can't compete with the Marlborough man. A hefty surcharge, however, can. In fact, a 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes causes a 4 percent reduction in demand. Teenagers are especially sensitive to these price changes: a 10 percent increase in price causes a 12 percent drop in teenage smoking. (The only bad news is that raising the price of cigarettes tends to increase the demand for marijuana. Apparently, the two products are in competition. I wonder what Altria thinks of that.)
Just out of curiosity what reference did you get the information about pot and cigarette correlations?
See Gregory Mankiw's textbook, "The Principle of Microeconomics," p. 70-71.