BANGKOK, Thailand: The image of a smoking toddler from Indonesia horrified the world but did little to motivate local policy makers to enact measures to protect children and youth from the harms of tobacco use. Indonesia has one of the world’s highest smoking rates where two out of three men and about 40 percent of adolescent boys smoke.

Cigarette prices in Indonesia are among the cheapest in the region, where a pack of Marlboro is sold for as little as US$1.70, while local brands or loose sticks are dirt cheap ($0.05 per stick), easily affordable to the nation’s 65 million smokers.

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