cut down on cigarettes taken from yahho

[Blue Ghost]

Press Assoc. - Saturday, May 31 01:19 amBranding and logos on cigarette packets could be banned under Government proposals to cut smoking.

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Tougher controls including plain packaging, minimum pack sizes of 20 and a ban on the advertising of cigarette papers are all under consideration by the Department of Health (DoH).

The department has released a consultation document called "The Future of Tobacco Control" with the aim of cutting smoking rates and preventing young people from picking up the habit. The proposals include removing branding and logos from all tobacco packaging and having a minimum pack size of 20 to stop young people who can only afford packs of 10 from buying cigarettes.

Other measures include restricting the display of tobacco products by placing them under shop counters, banning cigarette vending machines or restricting them to adults only, and banning the advertising of smoking paraphernalia such as cigarette papers.

More than 200,000 under-16's start smoking each year and are three times more likely to die of cancer than someone who starts in their mid-20s, according to government figures.

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said: "Protecting children from smoking is a Government priority and taking away temptation is one way to do this.

"If banning brightly-coloured packets, removing cigarettes from display and removing the cheap option of a pack of ten helps save lives, then that is what we should do, but we want to hear everyone's views first."

The consultation, published to coincide with World No Tobacco Day, aims to protect children and young people from smoking, reduce smoking rates and health inequalities caused by smoking and help people quit.

Recent statistics showed a 2% drop in smokers in Britain, down from 24%, while NHS Stop Smoking Services had seen a 28% increase in people attempting to quit since Smokefree legislation was introduced in July last year.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, said: "The best way to tackle youth smoking is through education and proper enforcement of the legal age limit. Banning point of sale display will make smoking even more attractive to teenagers. Worse, it will drive many smokers towards cheaper counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes

[tourerfogey]

And (if) smoking decreases as a result the Government will have to raise the lost tax revenue from elsewhere and that will probably be the motorist...

(Fact: More is raised in tax revenue on tobacco than is spent by the Health Service etc on tobacco related illness so even taking that into account there will be a massive shortfall that will need to be raised from elsewhere. )

[carlpenn]

This willl work just as the DoH's plan to prevent underage drinking did by introducing Age ID's and spending millions on Drink awareness campaigns that got ignored...........


How about doing something more positive for once? Closing down shops that illegally sell Tobacco and Alcohol products to Underage people and imprisonment for Shop Owners.

Parents knowingly allowing children to smoke, stick them on the Child protection register............

Parents allowing children to Drink underage. £1,000 Fine instantly or removal of property to same value.

Underage Drinkers and Smokers caught by Authorities, forced to do Manual Labour / Community work and Parents fined £100.

After all, what is the point of selling a pack of Tobacco in a grey bag compared to a Brightly coloured one? People don't buy fags for the packaging, its for the contents.

But, I guess I wouldn't know as I don't have a University Degree in Rocket Science...........