Sri Lanka is presently heading towards a ‘no-smokers’ zone’ due to the youngsters aged 15-25 staying away from the habit, an official from the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC) said. Albeit this is the age the habit starts, youngsters are also becoming increasingly health-conscious. In most countries, including Sri Lanka, the number of smokers is declining. The ADIC said that there was an increase of 80 per cent in the spread of non-communicable diseases in Sri Lanka, and consumption of alcohol and cigarettes was a key cause. Based on the Tobacco Atlas, an interactive tool to generate up-to-date direct and indirect costs of tobacco for most countries, there were 6,612 tons of tobacco produced in Sri Lanka in 2022 on 982 hectares of quality agricultural land that could have been used to grow food otherwise.