Georgia has set an ambitious public health objective to become a tobacco-free country by 2040, but recent trends are raising serious concerns, particularly the rapid growth in the use of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products over the past three years. The warning comes from the Tobacco Control Alliance which says these developments threaten progress made in reducing overall tobacco consumption.
The 2025 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) shows that Georgia has achieved notable results over the last decade, with tobacco use declining from 33% to 24%. Despite this improvement, consumption levels remain well above the European average. The Alliance stresses that the rise in alternative nicotine products has emerged as a new and pressing challenge, especially among younger populations.
Georgia’s long-term strategy goes beyond traditional tobacco control and aims at a ‘tobacco endgame’ policy, defined as reducing the use of all tobacco and nicotine products to below 5% of the population by 2040. The Alliance emphasizes that this shift is critical to reducing the country’s severe health, demographic and financial burden linked to premature deaths. It notes that the economic damage caused by tobacco-related harm is estimated to be ten times higher than the tax revenue generated by the tobacco industry.
To achieve this goal, the Tobacco Control Alliance outlines a comprehensive set of policy measures. These include equal taxation of all tobacco products and raw tobacco to prevent consumers from switching to cheaper alternatives and Georgia’s accession to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. The Alliance also calls for extending plain packaging and advertising bans to nicotine-free e-cigarettes and herbal smoking products.
Additional recommendations include banning all flavors except tobacco to reduce youth appeal, raising the legal age for purchasing tobacco from 18 to 21 and introducing a lifetime ban on tobacco sales to individuals born after 2015. The Alliance further proposes stricter enforcement near schools and kindergartens, higher fines for smoking in enclosed public spaces, a complete ban on smoking in casinos and on theater stages and increased penalties for smoking in the metro system.
The statement also urges the government to adopt regulations ensuring transparency in interactions with the tobacco industry, expand laboratory capacities at the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and restore funding for tobacco control programs, which was reduced in 2025.
Public support for these measures is strong. The 2025 survey shows that the majority of the population backs stricter tobacco control policies. The Alliance describes this as a clear public mandate, stating that genuine political commitment to protecting future generations must be demonstrated through concrete action. Failure to do so, it warns, would signal that tobacco industry interests outweigh public health priorities.
