http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7427141.stm
The idea is that it will help prevent children from buying them. But there’s more: packets of 10 will also be banned, the packaging will be made plain to make them less “enticing“, and they won’t be allowed “pride of place” in shops.
Personally, I think this is a stupid idea. The more that adults frown on something, the more likely it is that the “bad kids” will want to do it. The plan simply won’t work. Kids will still start smoking and they’ll still manage to get hold of fags. Cannabis is completely illegal, but kids still manage to get hold of that, so why the government think that kids won’t still get cigs is beyond me. All it will take is one dodgy newsagent and before the day is out, that’s where all the smoking kids in town will be getting their cancer sticks from. And aren’t vending machines normally in places like pubs where kids don’t go anyway?
The thing that amazes me most is how kids manage to afford over £5 for a packet of fags and why they think that’s a good use of their cash. I’d have been buying books and records with my money at that age.
There is one further effect this will certainly have: illegal imports of tobacco will go up and the government will lose money as a result. This just hasn’t been properly thought out at all.
One final point: the biggest cause of preventable death in this country isn’t smoking, it’s poor diet. Are they going to ban kids from going to McDonald’s next? If the government were really serious about this, they’d ban smoking completely. But that would cause a huge uproar amongst the 30% of adult smokers and wouldn’t earn them much credit from anyone else, so we get this sort of wishy-washy non-idea instead.
I think the picture above looks a bit like smoke. Very misty this morning, but people are still out and about on the beach.
Cheers, Tom.
31/05/08 @ 11:30