"Smoking permit" - You've got to be kidding me!

Originally Posted by Kinvig

If they want to stop people smoking surely they should make it harder for them to start in the first place - how about increasing the age limit to 18 like booze & voting?

the age limit for buying them is now 18.The problem now,is that most shops ask for proof of age if you look under 21.Sara got refused last week in Asda and she is 29.

Originally Posted by gid

the age limit for buying them is now 18.The problem now,is that most shops ask for proof of age if you look under 21.Sara got refused last week in Asda and she is 29.

being refused sucks bigtime. the last time it happened to me i was 21 and had just split up with my then boyfriend 10 mins before and they would not sell me any fags grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Very few people die of a one off session overindulging in fags which cannot be said of booze,it is just another hair brained scheme to fleece us. ALCHOHOL on the other hand can kill not just the partaker but the innocent by overindulging as is quite apparent by the alchohol fueled crime rate,so if we are going to have one lets have both,may even help to reduce drunkeness in the underage drinking fraternity,whereby reducing crime

[Perhaps not,as our Ken likes his midmorning tipple]

Originally Posted by Fizzy Fish

Honestly WTF is that about?!

It's about discouraging people, especially kids, from starting to smoke.
Which, IMO, is a good thing.

Originally Posted by wyrdness

It's about discouraging people, especially kids, from starting to smoke.
Which, IMO, is a good thing.

hmmm, I'm all for stopping kids from starting (and now you point it out, this would probably help), but they aren't talking about it in those terms - it seems to be more aimed at existing adult smokers.

My point is that if they want to make people stop that much, why aren't they banning it entirely? If they want to raise more money, why aren't they raising tax on cigarettes?

I can't see it making poeple stop who are existing regular smokers, but it will serve to be a hassle for them. Plus having done a lot of work with elderly people I know that some really struggle with this kind of admin faff, and really should we be forcing someone who's 90 to stop just because they don't understand how this all works?

I don't smoke myself anymore and am all for encouraging people to give up, but this just seems daft. Rather put the funding into more of the stop smoking clinics, which have helped several of my friends to quit.

[Lissa]

Maybe if all the stopping smoking aids weren't so prohibitively expensive, more people would stop.

A months supply of nicotine gum would cost me 7x what a months supply of tobacco would

Originally Posted by Lissa

Maybe if all the stopping smoking aids weren't so prohibitively expensive, more people would stop.

A months supply of nicotine gum would cost me 7x what a months supply of tobacco would

exactamundo!

How about some alternative ways to discourage smoking.....

Packets of fags should be packaged in the same way as small electrical items. You know, that plastic casing that needs an angle grinder to open it.

Or,

How about limiting the time when they can be sold (a bit like the old licensing laws). Mondays (excliding bank holidays) between 09:00-11:00.

Or,

How about a gun cabinet approach? Cigarettes have to be stored in a locked and fireproof box (like a little safe) making them difficult to carry away from home.


No, I'm not serious.

Originally Posted by wyrdness

It's about discouraging people, especially kids, from starting to smoke.
Which, IMO, is a good thing.

It's crap idea. It's usually poorer kids with rubbish parents that start smoking, meaning it's an indication of wider social problems which are far more serious.

But just like everything the f**kwits in the Labour party come up with it's just another poorly thought out exercise in trying to treat the symptom not the cause.

Originally Posted by Xan173

How about limiting the time when they can be sold (a bit like the old licensing laws). Mondays (excliding bank holidays) between 09:00-11:00.

watch out for the resulting surge in violent crime on a Sunday evening!!