Should the sale of packs of 10 cigarettes be stopped?

Yes. Your point? Clearly, the cigarette companies would know whether it works or not.

Department of Health's Office of Tobacco Control

Perhaps, but they are clearly biased and their analysis cannot be take at face value. Later on in the article, a spokesman for the Department of Health's Office of Tobacco Control defends the move, suggesting with good reason that it will deter the much younger kids i.e. the 10-14 age band.

What were you saying about bias and not taking things at face value?

Hmm, good point I suppose...I guess people will be more reluctant to buy a bigger, more expensive pack if they're just starting out and aren't addicted yet. I wish they were bloody illegal altogether, I just cannot understand why anybody with a brain would even contemplate smoking those little sticks of poison.

So... because you can't understand why people would do it, you want it banned

No, it should be banned because we should stop stupid people from harming themselves, not encourage them.

Britian is the only country I know that actually still sells packs of 10, most other countries only sell 20s. I think if they stopped the sale of packs of 10 then underage smokers and casual smoking would end, simply because of the cost involved. A pack of 10 costs about £2.30-£2.50, while a pack of 20 can cost £5-6. For a younger person without a job (ie under 16), the pack of 10 doesn't cost too much as most people have £2-3 lying about, yet £5-6 is starting to get into quite significant money to hand over for a pack of cigarettes.

I feel that only selling packs of 20 would act as a deterant for the people who are only either curious about smoking or casual smokers.

Opinions?

I just cannot understand why anybody with a brain would even contemplate smoking those little sticks of poison.

No, it should be banned because we should stop stupid people from harming themselves, not encourage them.

should the sale of cigarettes be stopped all together? but thats not going to happen due to the tax moniessssssss

The government doesn't actually gain money from people smoking. The tax money probably doesn't even cover the cost of people using the NHS from smoking related illnesses.

The government doesn't actually gain money from people smoking. The tax money probably doesn't even cover the cost of people using the NHS from smoking related illnesses.

It does, and it provides more. The government very much profits from tobacco taxation.

Then WHY would they spend so much money on anti-smoking campaigns?

And even if they do gain from tobacco sales, I don't see why it's a problem. It'll only come back as something worthwhile, like education or healthcare.

No, it should be banned because we should stop stupid people from harming themselves, not encourage them.

Some small sense of decency?


It's a problem because it involves artificially hiking the price of something to pay for something completely unrelated. If you're going to say it's okay to shift wealth around to pay for good causes then why can't I mug people in the street to give money to charities? Smokers haven't done anything wrong, so how can you justify punishing them?