New UK anti-smoking measures
p2pnet news | Off Topic:- Bad news for Britain’s younger smokers.
Or so health secretary Alan Johnson hopes.
Packets of 10 won’t be available over the counter and vending machines will be outlawed under plans to be announced this week, says Times Online, going on:
“Only months after the Government raised the age for buying cigarettes to 18, the Health Secretary said that more anti-smoking measures were likely to be introduced, including banning packets of ten.
Johnson says many European countries, “had banned vending machines, with ’startling’ results, going on, “Whether you should still be able to buy ten cigarettes or whether you should insist you can only buy 20 is an issue we need to look very closely at.”
Packs of ten are more affordable for youngsters, says the Daily Mail.
“Ministers believe the moves could save hundreds of lives by cutting the number of smokers and discouraging young people from taking up the habit.”
But opponents [read Big Tobacco and retailers], “warned that a clampdown on displays could backfire by glamourising cigarettes among young people,” says the story.
“Younger people are more influenced by advertising – 200,000 kids under 16 start smoking every year and their chances of a premature death from smoking are three times higher than if they had started in their 20s.” Johnson says in the story.
.
.Stumble It!
Times Online – Cigarettes to be available only as ‘under the counter’ purchase, May 26, 2008
Daily Mail – End to the pack of ten of blitz on young smokers?, May 26, 2008
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May 26th, 2008 at 11:57 am
ONLY smoking is so bad then ??????
May 26th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Here in Japan, they are starting a new system where people will be required to register for a photo ID (free of charge), that will be required of all over the counter cigarette sales, as well as purchased from vending machines starting July 2008. In Japan, the legal smoking and drinking age is 20.
The new photo ID is not a legal requirement though, but a self regulatory measure by Japan Tobacco (a monopoly in Tobacco sales in Japan BTW, with MANY ex-politicians on the board -heh), to ward off possible legal measures that might result in penalties against stores- who are found to have sold their product to minors.
Just recently, after several major drunken driving accidents, Japan passed a law that could hold the establishment, that sold alcohol to minors or drivers, accountable for the sale.
This move to require the special IDs by the Tobacco industry in Japan, is said to have been made to fend off similar laws.
Quite frankly though, after seeing the cigarette buts that litter the ground, and nearly being burnt by a smoker walking past me in a no-smoking zone, I wouldn’t mind it if they made smokers take an intelligence test, before allowing them to smoke.
*rant
And yes, smoking DOES kill (2 grandfathers-one died from smoking induced lung cancer at 66 and the other from heart disease at 67, and two uncles who died from an blood clot brought about from combination and smoking and alcohol at the age of 45 and 50). A non-smoker friend of mind had to be treated from lung cancer brought about from 2nd hand smoke from his college roommate who was a heavy smoker.
*/rant
Just my two cents
May 27th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Let them kill themselves. It’s their choice. But if suicide is illegal, why shouldn’t smoking also be? If govts were serious about caring for peoples’ lives they would ban it, but we all know that won’t happen. There’s too much to be made in ever increasing taxes, which are claimed to be a “deterrent”. Then there are all their other gimmicks designed to “discourage” it. This all only makes stubborn rebels more determined.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:27 am
In the UK, the government has to bear the cost of caring for smoking relating diseases, and so, they have a motivational rationale for suppressing tobacco even at the expense of loss of tax revenue. However this is all deeply hypocritical given the governments reclassification of cannabis. Ostensibly, it’s acceptable by law to smoke the addictive, and deadly chemical laden tobacco, but if you grow or smoke unrefined cannabis, which is not addictive and significantly more natural, then we can be arrested. The law is archaic and draconian, and is full of hypocrisies. Of course, the misanthropic cynic in me sees a rather more simple explanation, which is that the government doesn’t control cannabis, and thus, does not earn tax revenue from it; that being so, it outlaws and demonises it instead.
If over 60% of the population has tried cannabis at one time or another, why is it illegal? It seems to me that the public has approved it. But the politicians are frightened to legalise something which is already ubiquitous and cannot readily be taxed.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Oh yes the bane of society…smokers….
BULLSHIT…..
Walk outside and take a deep breath….good huh…
You just took in everything that they list as harmful in tobacco.
Don’t believe, try reading a bit.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:34 am
through smoking mouth cancer will arise and this is a dangerous disease and could not be cured.Think again when you smoke.