This ban on smoking 11:07 - Apr 16 with 3531 views | bluelagos | Proposal is to ban kids today from being able to ever smoke. So the age to buy ciggies will rise every year thus meaning those aged 15 today (or whatever) will never be legally allowed to smoke. Existing smokers - all good. Now I am a libertarian at heart, believe in freedoms of choice, and am not slow to criticise the govt when they mess up - but I can't think of a credible argument against the proposals. Maybe some are worried it's a slippery slope? Perhaps more likely those publicly opposing the ban are also taking donations from the tobacco industry? (maybe am too cynical) Anyone got any genuine objections to the proposals to help keep our kids healthy as they become adults? |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:13 - Apr 16 with 2742 views | Blueschev | My only real question would be that prohibition doesn't work with drugs, so what makes anybody think it will work with tobacco? |  | |  |
This ban on smoking on 11:14 - Apr 16 with 2735 views | Zx1988 | You're probably not far wrong about the tobacco industry. The number of disingenuous adverts I’ve seen on social media, trying to argue that the ban will stop 50-year-old Gary from exercising his freedom of choice suggests that they’re pumping millions into opposing any sort of legislation. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:17 - Apr 16 with 2697 views | Lord_Lucan | I am very much a live and let live and have been smoking all my life - but gave up in January. I don't see why they should ban tobacco and not any other legal drug to be honest - although I don't really care. They tried this in NZ and I believe it's now scrapped. [Post edited 16 Apr 2024 11:17]
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This ban on smoking on 11:19 - Apr 16 with 2667 views | noggin | Does that mean in say, 30 years, people wanting to buy a pack of smokes, will have to prove they are over 45? |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:20 - Apr 16 with 2657 views | Lord_Lucan |
This ban on smoking on 11:19 - Apr 16 by noggin | Does that mean in say, 30 years, people wanting to buy a pack of smokes, will have to prove they are over 45? |
You got it baby. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:20 - Apr 16 with 2662 views | bluelagos |
This ban on smoking on 11:17 - Apr 16 by Lord_Lucan | I am very much a live and let live and have been smoking all my life - but gave up in January. I don't see why they should ban tobacco and not any other legal drug to be honest - although I don't really care. They tried this in NZ and I believe it's now scrapped. [Post edited 16 Apr 2024 11:17]
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I don't think the NZ ban actually happened. They seem to have ditched the legislation before it became law. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:22 - Apr 16 with 2648 views | bluelagos |
This ban on smoking on 11:19 - Apr 16 by noggin | Does that mean in say, 30 years, people wanting to buy a pack of smokes, will have to prove they are over 45? |
Think that's the idea. The age to buy fags would go up every year so kids today would never be able to legally buy cigarettes. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:31 - Apr 16 with 2607 views | Ryorry | Also sort of agree with the ban in principle, but it doesn't seem to take much account of psychology - anything banned = immediately appearing more exciting, attractive, and in particular, a 'must challenge' for youngsters! I'd have thought graphic education a much better way - remember those photos of the insides of heavy smokers' lungs you used to see? Esp compared with the lungs of non-smokers. Reckon that'd be a far better option, because peoples' own choice/determination, I remember as kids that me & my bro were introduced v. early (about 10-12) to wine with meals by our parents, so it never became a forbidden attraction. And as kids, we were also put off excess drinking by my Dad telling us about how as a young man he once got drunk & was so sick he never wanted to do it again. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:32 - Apr 16 with 2599 views | PabloReuser |
This ban on smoking on 11:22 - Apr 16 by bluelagos | Think that's the idea. The age to buy fags would go up every year so kids today would never be able to legally buy cigarettes. |
Isn't the obvious argument against it that all adults should have equal legal rights? How can a different law apply to a 33-year-old and a 55-year-old? Either ban it now for all adults - or just accept smoking as a part of a free society. |  | |  |
This ban on smoking on 11:34 - Apr 16 with 2585 views | Pinewoodblue | My personal choice would be to hike the tax annually by inflation plus 10% and do away with duty free. For the record I started smoking at an early age, before I was 16, but haven’t smoked since the new year after my 16th birthday. Even then it was relatively expensive. If people want to smoke let them but make the cost prohibitive. Let the consumer make a choice, for youngsters it would probably come down to either not smoking or not having the latest mobile. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:36 - Apr 16 with 2557 views | bluelagos |
This ban on smoking on 11:34 - Apr 16 by Pinewoodblue | My personal choice would be to hike the tax annually by inflation plus 10% and do away with duty free. For the record I started smoking at an early age, before I was 16, but haven’t smoked since the new year after my 16th birthday. Even then it was relatively expensive. If people want to smoke let them but make the cost prohibitive. Let the consumer make a choice, for youngsters it would probably come down to either not smoking or not having the latest mobile. |
What are we now, £12 a pack? Pack a day habit comes in around £4k pa? |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:39 - Apr 16 with 2540 views | Lord_Lucan |
This ban on smoking on 11:20 - Apr 16 by bluelagos | I don't think the NZ ban actually happened. They seem to have ditched the legislation before it became law. |
Oh, I didn't realise. I remember some people thought it was a great idea because it was thought up by a left wing party, the same people will probably disagree now because it's a Tory thing. I think this is another reason why I think most people are demented weirdos. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:40 - Apr 16 with 2538 views | Blueschev |
This ban on smoking on 11:36 - Apr 16 by bluelagos | What are we now, £12 a pack? Pack a day habit comes in around £4k pa? |
I'd argue that is less of a deterrent when it's quite easy to find people selling it on the cheap. My brother in law paid £32 for 30g of Golden Virginia a few weeks back, which wound him up as he knows a shop near his where 50g under the counter for £10. |  | |  |
This ban on smoking on 11:45 - Apr 16 with 2522 views | Lord_Lucan |
This ban on smoking on 11:40 - Apr 16 by Blueschev | I'd argue that is less of a deterrent when it's quite easy to find people selling it on the cheap. My brother in law paid £32 for 30g of Golden Virginia a few weeks back, which wound him up as he knows a shop near his where 50g under the counter for £10. |
Before I gave up, my local shop used to sell the duty free stuff at £12 a 50g pack without even asking if you wanted the cheap stuff or the duty paid stuff, in fact I don't think they even sell duty paid. The only downside was that you had to wait about 3 minutes while he sent his kid to the van to get it. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:46 - Apr 16 with 2510 views | GeoffSentence |
This ban on smoking on 11:31 - Apr 16 by Ryorry | Also sort of agree with the ban in principle, but it doesn't seem to take much account of psychology - anything banned = immediately appearing more exciting, attractive, and in particular, a 'must challenge' for youngsters! I'd have thought graphic education a much better way - remember those photos of the insides of heavy smokers' lungs you used to see? Esp compared with the lungs of non-smokers. Reckon that'd be a far better option, because peoples' own choice/determination, I remember as kids that me & my bro were introduced v. early (about 10-12) to wine with meals by our parents, so it never became a forbidden attraction. And as kids, we were also put off excess drinking by my Dad telling us about how as a young man he once got drunk & was so sick he never wanted to do it again. |
Stick kids in a car for two hours with a chainsmoking driver. They'll never want to go near a cigarette again. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 11:59 - Apr 16 with 2447 views | J2BLUE |
This ban on smoking on 11:46 - Apr 16 by GeoffSentence | Stick kids in a car for two hours with a chainsmoking driver. They'll never want to go near a cigarette again. |
Especially if it's 30+ degrees and the windows are all closed. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 13:34 - Apr 16 with 2189 views | withyblue | How do you reconcile pro-freedom of choice with being pro-total ban (eventually)? |  | |  |
This ban on smoking on 13:37 - Apr 16 with 2170 views | mutters | Honestly, i am a fan. I used to smoke and I was very happy when they banned smoking in pubs and clubs because it meant my little sister would never be tempted (not that she would as she is far more sensible than I am) to smoke inside, which is where i got caught. Not being able to smoke in the pub helped me quit. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 13:41 - Apr 16 with 2125 views | Daninthecampo |
This ban on smoking on 11:32 - Apr 16 by PabloReuser | Isn't the obvious argument against it that all adults should have equal legal rights? How can a different law apply to a 33-year-old and a 55-year-old? Either ban it now for all adults - or just accept smoking as a part of a free society. |
Exactly this! Secondly with vaping and the costs do many youngsters even smoke now? I don't know any that smoke straights and the baccy smokers I know mostly use it for spliffs. So any new law isn't going to stop them Ex 30 a day red Marlboro smoker here |  | |  |
This ban on smoking on 13:42 - Apr 16 with 2123 views | Herbivore | If we're serious about cutting down on preventable deaths then we'd be better off banning Tories and poverty. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 13:44 - Apr 16 with 2100 views | Swansea_Blue |
This ban on smoking on 11:13 - Apr 16 by Blueschev | My only real question would be that prohibition doesn't work with drugs, so what makes anybody think it will work with tobacco? |
Very good question and not one that’s been seriously addressed so far in the little I’ve heard. There was a fascinating little phone in on R2 this morning at about 9. I only heard the first few callers. One was a woman with a voice like Rod Stewart’s who insisted she wasn’t addicted despite needing 10-20 a day. A rather amusing sarcastic fella. And then someone who worked in a charity working with smokers in the north-east who made an interesting observation that more often than not smokers aren’t exercising their right to free choice. Smoking actually does the opposite and the addiction denies people a choice in many cases. I thought that was a compelling argument against the ‘freedom’ claims. Ultimately the choice argument is meaningless though if the activity is driven onto the black market and risks are actually increased by a lack of product regulation. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 13:45 - Apr 16 with 2089 views | Buhrer | Banning smoking, reducing smoking can only be a good thing for everyone. I smoked between 13- 30 and whilst I bloody enjoyed a lot of it, what an absolutely bo llocks waste of money dirty habit it was. I don't regret much in life but that was f ooking pointless and I'd never have started now. I was then of course, well cool. |  | |  |
This ban on smoking on 13:45 - Apr 16 with 2085 views | WeWereZombies |
This ban on smoking on 11:46 - Apr 16 by GeoffSentence | Stick kids in a car for two hours with a chainsmoking driver. They'll never want to go near a cigarette again. |
That didn't work for me, my Dad was a sixty a day man and I used to sit next to him on our thousand mile moving trips between Suffolk and Spain, I just got used to it. |  |
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This ban on smoking on 13:46 - Apr 16 with 2079 views | Sarge | The only downside I can see is an argument that banning them will push them into the black market. Essentially the same reasoning as legalising cannabis to stop gangs controlling it. |  | |  |
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