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It has been mooted in press that consideration, by some think tanks, is being given to raising smoking age to 21.
It is all bovine excrement anyway as most people who smoke get hooked whilst underage at school - just look outside our local school next to local supermarket - there is always a huddle of school children hidden from view of teachers puffing away.
So we consider people are old enough to have sex, marry and have children at 16 but not old enough until 21 to decide if they can smoke?
Why not go the whole hog and raise it to pension age!
This idea is a dangerous precedence to set as it flies in the face of 18 years old being age of majority.
Nothing is going to stop 18 yr old (or younger) children getting access to cigarettes. You will just end up with "cigarette dealers" hanging around schools like the endless scourge of drug dealers. It will probably be harder to stop them, unless actually caught selling, as possession of cigarettes will not be illegal if over 21!
Setting an arbitrary age is not the solution.
The only realistic solution is to put a £1 tax per cigarette and people OF ALL AGES will stop - youngsters particularly will not be able to afford it then for sure. Of course the government is totally disengenous as they do not REALLY want to stop smoking as this would lead to a huge loss in tax revenue.
At the same time, the government should ban import of cheap cigarettes via duty free.
Nothing is ever going to stop bulk smugglers - hell we probably invented smuggling in UK as an industry by virtue of being a seafaring island race LOL. All you can do is impose punitive sentences.
If they do succeed - what is next - alcohol?
It is all bovine excrement anyway as most people who smoke get hooked whilst underage at school - just look outside our local school next to local supermarket - there is always a huddle of school children hidden from view of teachers puffing away.
So we consider people are old enough to have sex, marry and have children at 16 but not old enough until 21 to decide if they can smoke?
Why not go the whole hog and raise it to pension age!
This idea is a dangerous precedence to set as it flies in the face of 18 years old being age of majority.
Nothing is going to stop 18 yr old (or younger) children getting access to cigarettes. You will just end up with "cigarette dealers" hanging around schools like the endless scourge of drug dealers. It will probably be harder to stop them, unless actually caught selling, as possession of cigarettes will not be illegal if over 21!
Setting an arbitrary age is not the solution.
The only realistic solution is to put a £1 tax per cigarette and people OF ALL AGES will stop - youngsters particularly will not be able to afford it then for sure. Of course the government is totally disengenous as they do not REALLY want to stop smoking as this would lead to a huge loss in tax revenue.
At the same time, the government should ban import of cheap cigarettes via duty free.
Nothing is ever going to stop bulk smugglers - hell we probably invented smuggling in UK as an industry by virtue of being a seafaring island race LOL. All you can do is impose punitive sentences.
If they do succeed - what is next - alcohol?
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