LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME - 2021

Lots of counterfeit cigs around here, they bring them over from France on the lorries.
Some are genuine but avoiding the tax, others are just Far East lookalikes that, as you say, contain all kinds of stuff.

And this is just brought about by high taxes, if you actually ban them, god knows how the trade will escalate.

Remember when you used to get someone who was older than you to go in a buy you 10 fags.
Get the vision of a 40 yr old sending his grand dad in to buy some.

 

Banning alcohol sales to under 18's hasn't stopped them drinking, so there's little chance of it working with cigarettes. All to often a relative or older friend will buy for them.

 

The couple next door both died from lung cancer having smoked for all of their adult lives. The wife died aged 55 and husband went on into his early 60's. They put him on a small oxygen tank near the end. I remember seeing him in the garden, removing the oxygen pipe from his mouth and taking drags from a cigarette.
So I'm biased and I'd welcome a total ban in the UK.
I don't want my kids or grand kids smoking and although state control is taking your freedom, i don't see it as anymore control than making us drive without alcohol on the correct side of the road.

 

@JR It took getting lung cancer for my Mum to finally stop a couple of years ago! She was on about 40 a day before that. After 3 attempts in about 5 years I finally stopped last July and have gradually got my vaping down to about 10 minutes a day now. I think if people have no option to do something, then it negates the element of self-discipline. I would much rather live in a slightly less healthy society where people are free to choose. A caged bird is probably free from all sorts of risks it would face in the wild, but what about its quality of life?

I don't see how you can compare it to drink driving. It only takes one incident to kill another driver, a whole family in a car or even a whole family of pedestrians. Passive smoking is generally far less dangerous than that unless someone is exposed to it for many years AFAIK. It's really affecting others that's the issue with anything like that for me, not people harming themselves, that's their own stupid choice if they want to go down that path.

Nick

 

Would you welcome a total ban on alcohol? If we go down this route of ban this and that, where do we draw a line. Both smoking and alcohol cost the NHS billions yearly, yet both cigarettes and alcohol bring in even more to the treasury in duty.

I have kids and hopefully one day I will have grandchildren, I don't want their civil liberties eroded. I do want them to become responsible adults, but by choice, not force.

 

Fair point.. I like booze! But I'd venture to say that drinking within reason is more achievable than say having 3 days off the fags?
(We have 'dry days' mon to weds) though i can't argue that once an alcoholic you're doomed just as badly as a heavy smoker is and yes it kills. I can only speak for myself but if I pour a glass of wine for my wife or daughter I'm fine with that, but I'd rather nail my scroats to the coffee table than watch them smoke

 

Well Nick you've got more personal connection to the issue than me. I'm glad your mum's ok, and that you only vape now. (i like the cherry vape one's that freinds have used near me)
A bird in a cage is a dreadful scenario.. Let him out!!
But i get your drift, maybe It's easy for me to support a ban as I'm not a smoker, and i don't want my own family doing it, but yes freedom of choice is important to all of us.

 

I can relate with that. In general the adult population that smoke has been in decline globally for some years now. Europe has a higher percentage of adult smokers compared to globally, one significant factor is, the adult smoking of females in Europe is far greater. In Denmark and Sweden the adult population that smoke is roughly 50/50 female/male, yet the further east and south you go from Europe, the gap between male and female smokers widens considerably. In the far east it is reported that 2-3% of the female adult population smoke, with a similar percentage in the middle east and Africa, yet in Europe, it is 19-20%

 

I guess you mean adult females smoking in Europe. I quit in 1986 aged 38 when I was operated on for cancer. At the time I smoked about 10 a day, menthol. My mother died aged 34 from cancer, she was a heavy smoker. My sister died aged 67 from cancer, she was a heavy smoker.

 

When i was at scool aged around 12, the biology teacher brought two large samples of lung tissue into the classroom.
One was healthy pink and bouncy. The second was from a deceased smoker. It was sunken, black and decayed.
I doubt if that method of education would be acceptable today (too traumatic)
It had a big impact on me and i guess on the other kids too.

 

I didn't ask! Maybe he fell off a ladder

 

A car ran him over. He was out rushing to buy fags for his mate with the sunken, black lungs and wasn't watching the traffic...

Nick