Every cigarette sold in France has become a symbol of a fierce political and social battle. Manufacturers suggest prices, but the state has the final word, loading each pack with excise duties and VAT in the name of public health. With 75,000 smoking-related deaths every year, the government has chosen a simple weapon: make every puff hurt the wallet. A pack that cost €3 in the early 2000s now stands around €12.50–€13, and projections toward €20 or even €26 by 2040 are no longer dismissed as fantasy.

Yet this strategy has consequences that spill beyond health statistics. As prices climb and rolling tobacco follows the same trend, low-income smokers are pushed toward cheaper markets in Spain, Andorra, or Luxembourg, or into the arms of smugglers. At the same time, smoking is being pushed out of daily life—banned from cafés, parks, beaches, bus stops, and school gates—backed by fines for lighting up, vaping, or even dropping a butt on the ground. France is not just making tobacco expensive; it is steadily turning smoking itself into something society can no longer quietly tole…