Will tobacco display ban help stop smoking?

I suppose you could try to ban cigarettes - but look at what happened in the US when they tried to ban alcohol. Do we really want to start a ´British Mafia´?

I honestly don´t think there´s anything the govt can do to make the entire population stop smoking. I myself am a smoker and yes I am aware of the harm it could cause, but it is an addiction. The thing that annoys me is that there are thousands of people per year killed as a result of alcohol and although there are anti drinking and ´please drink responsibly´ campaigns I don´t hear anyone telling us to stop completely and it is not attacked as maliciously as smoking. Drink causes you to smell and can ultimately cause death too...why is smoking worse?

Smoking is worse than drinking simply because there is no safe level of smoking, and for the non-smoker, someone nearby smoking one is just as irritating as them smoking 20.

Alcohol, taken in moderation (i.e. one or two drinks, 2 or 3 times per week) is probably beneficial for health, and certainly shouldn´t cause any collateral damage with regard to yobbish behaviour or car related deaths.

Overall though I agree - the government regulation for smoking has gone too far. Forcing smokers to stay in and smoke is probably worse for their children´s health as in the past they would go to the pub and smoke. I think it´s quite lame to hide behind health and safety at work legislation to get the ban in pubs through. There should be smokers pubs and non-smokers pubs, and if non-smokers don´t want to work in a smokers pub they can work elsewhere. And, the idea that putting fags under the counter will stop kids being attracted to smoking is to me ludicrous.

I have to say that I think it could work for the younger generation, I mean out of sight out of mind. As a smoker I know it won´t stop me from smoking, after all I´m addicted, but if it will help reduce the number of kids who start smoking, even by just 1 then, it will have been worth doing.

I believe less interference by the nanny state government that we have will be a step in the right direction. I am currently trying (not very well i must say) to stop smoking but each and every time i see government suggestions it just encourages me to smoke more!!

Got to agree with billybigtime on that one. I quit for 9 months, and the thing that made it so hard was that every 10 minutes, the NHS support service would display a 200ft high ciggy while telling you how hard it is to stop smoking! The problem is that they have to be seen to be actively trying to stop people from smoking, but at the same time, they need the money it generates for them.

I am all for not allowing people to buy tabacco products until they are 18. However if the shops checked people ages and did not sell them to people under age then there would be no need not to display the product. I would suggest that there is a very good arguement to stop displaying alcohol as this probably has more health, social and criminal problems relating to it. There are probably more accidents and days lost at work to alcohol. The ban on smoking in public houses I do not agree with as it has just driven people on to the street. I believe that there should be seperate smoking area clearly partitioned with proper extractor fans where it doesn´t effect the non-smokers or the bar staff. As for the goverment how can they talk when the bar in the House of Commons is a smoking bar. It seems it is do as I say not do as I do. It the usual government nanny state I think they are a bunch of control freaks who not satified with making a total mess of policy want to control every part of our lives. Thank goodness I work away. The ban on displaying cigerettes will not, I believe, make an iota of difference to the figures. Most children try smoking at one time or another through peer pressure some carry on and some stop. Usually the first cigerette people have is one someone gives them to try which they have not bought themselves.

Hey, why are they messing about? Just ban the sale of tobacco full stop and then put up income taxes or VAT to recover the lost revenue.
I am a nicotine addict and I am sick of all the "steps" they have taken to "help" me give up. No pleasure in going to the pub any more, no pleasure in eating out because there isn´t even a smoking area other than outside in the rain/cold. Nice in the summer though when all the non-smokers join us. Often most of the smokers outside the pubs are the STAFF who the ban is supposed to be protecting. I´ve never seen people get into a fight as a result of smoking, I´ve never seen anyone get out of control due to smoking, I´ve never seen a smoker beat up the nurses in A&E. Hey - why not ban booze from pubs as well? That would put the world to rights eh? Ban McDonalds and Burger King because they make kids fat. Ban driving cars that go faster than 70. Ban movies with sex or violence in them.
I could give up smoking if I was marooned on a desert island for 3 months with Renee Zelwegger. Try getting that on prescription!!!

I can see what they are doing, stopping people from starting, and I guess if it works then it would be a good thing. If I go back 27 years to the day I started, if something could have stopped me from doing it then, it would have been fantastic. Maybe out of sight would have helped. Maybe not being able to buy them from a newsagent when I was clearly under 16 would have helped more.
Luckily I decided to give up 2 months before my 40th birthday and it was one of the best things I ever did. The smoking ban certainly had an effect on that, although it hadn´t turned up then, it was obvious the tide was changing, and I didn´t want to be the last one standing in the rain trying to light a cigarette!
You can´t stop someone smoking, but you can certainly help them to decide they want to.

I think this step is a bit futile, but if you only stop a couple of kids from wasting a large amount of money for a lot of their life damaging their health, then I guess it is worth a try.

I think having the packets out of sight will discourage some kids from buying cigarettes. As young teenagers do they really all know a brand to ask for? Without having the choice in front to pick a name from an underage purchaser may not have the courage to ask the shopkeeper. Surely if it stops just some children then the policy will be successful?

As a smoker who started as a teen, I think it could easily have the opposite effect to that intended.
How many teens use illegal drugs? These are not advertised, and the very ¨under the counter¨ nature of them is a large part of the appeal.

Banning tobacco display will do little in discouraging smoking. It is true that some smokers crave for nicotine when they sight cigaratte packs on the shelves, but, it is also true, that they will go to a great length to get their hands on a pack, including illegal vendors if need be. So i think banning display could mean the opening of illegal outlets.

I am not naive or innocent enough to believe that this will put a complete ban on smoking. On the other hand, I do believe that it may have some effect on smoking. Anything that does have an effect on smoking has to be a good thing, doesn´t it? The way I see it is this. Adults have already made up their mind on this matter - if they want to smoke, let them. On the other hand, children/young people have not yet made up their minds. It is up to all of us to discourage them as much as possible, with measures such as this.

I am old enough to still remember how awful cigarette advertising used to be. You could not pass an advertising hoarding, without seeing some material advertising the latest Benson and Hedges. These advertisements pushed people into believing that cigarettes were always available. Now that this advertising has been banned, not only from advertising boards, but also sponsors of sport (remember Embassy and snooker?), there has been a falling-off in tobacco use.

A lot of adults now know the way that cigarettes can affect health. Can the same be said of children/young adults? I think not, therefore I agree with the legislation.

No. The more something is banned, prohibited, outlawed, etc the more attractive it becomes. Think of prohibition in America. Booze was never more attractive! And the crime that came with it was never more vicious. Education and persuasion are the answer, especially with the young, plus VERY high taxes, but of course that would kill the golden goose which is so attractive to the government, and so very much needed in these hard times. If only Raleigh had tried to persuade us to smoke the potato, and eat tobacco! (With thanks to Blackadder!)

I feel the tide is slowly turning with the smoking culture of this country. Only a few years ago it was socially acceptable to smoke anywhere in the public domain, even on buses in the 80s as I recall. Yet the latest smoking prohibition in pubs etc, seems to have rattled more cages than the previous ´no go areas´ i.e. planes, trains and buses did.
I personally find it acceptable to pop outside for a smoke when I´m having a pint (not on a plane by the way!), and have found I smoke a lot less cigarettes on a night out than I did when it was ok to smoke inside pubs, which is cheaper and less damaging. Previously, smokers (me included) just seemed to light up sub-consciously, more so if a friend offered a cigarette to you, or just lit up, we seemed to just follow suit, it was a social thing, a way of life.
Now however, the mindset of the general smoker is gradually being changed and that´s a good thing. Putting us outside has meant that we are consciously going for a smoke, not merely chucking one in the gob and puffing away on auto-pilot. This slow turning of the tide is a positive move in the right direction.
As for the shops not displaying them, well fair enough it might save the odd teenager hear and there which is good, however when a teenager wants to do something their peer group finds ´cool´ (not just smoking), they´d climb mountains to do it, and to hell with us ´oldies´ telling them not to do so, they´ll do it more just to annoy. Just like our (and yours most likely) generation(s) did.
So, the smoking ban and display ban are good, and will most likely reduce smoking of existing smokers as well as stopping some new ones starting, but remember one thing, teenagers of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and so on rebelled against the establishment, it´s what teenagers do………or have you forgotten yours?

Filter alert. I had to change ´n.i.p outside´ to ´pop outside´ in the above post! Luckily I previewed it first then edited it, otherwise it may have looked like I´d sworn or something.

I think that this ban is an important part of what should be an holistic approach to marginalising smoking and smokers from the rest of society. Don´t get me wrong, I do not think smokers are bad people (I used to smoke myself) but the fact is smoking is harmful to smokers and potentially everyone within a, say, 5 meter radius. Not to mention the environmental damage from cigerette butts, which costs everyone money to clean up.

This ban needs to go much further, smoking on the street should be resticted to certain designated locations (as is done in Tokyo) and an ID or permit should be required for the purchasing of cigerettes.

This is the only way of adequately controlling a habit which is universally accepted as being harmful to health and environment while still accepting that smokers have a right to smoke and allowing them to do so in a socially responsible way.

The quick answer is no, it won´t make a blind bit of difference.

With regard to the pub thread in the posts, as much, as a non smoker, I enjoy smoke free pubs, I enjoy pubs more and they are shutting faster than is good for us, partly as a result of smokers staying away. I like the command and control diktats of this obsessive control freak nanny government, like the smoking ban, even less.

In reality, if you listen to the experts, everything is bad for us.

Red meat, no meat, wine, no wine, beer, passive smoking, driving cars, eggs, milk, breast milk, being fat, being thin to name some that just spring to mind.

Also, the most disgusting thing is refusing NHS treatment for people who offend the sensibilities of the politbureau, for whatever reason, whilst simultaneously wasting the tax contribution from their hard earned cash. Lets face it smokers, drinkers and drivers pay more towards the NHS than those who don´t. Who should not receive the benefit?

Everyone should receive the benefit of the NHS Stoffer, we all pay for it. Athough I do for a lot of cases have that if it´s self inflicted they get no help mentality, in regards to this, I think it´s just false to use that here. Like you say, smokers and drinkers pay a heck of a lot of money into our economy so they´re paying for the NHS services they use way before they need to use them.

I don´t think the displays being hidden will make much difference, kids today are a heck of a lot smarter than we give them credit for. Just because they´re not on display does not mean they won´t know they´re there. And even if they do still have that innocence, there´s no way they´re going to get through all of their teenage years without finding out there are cigarettes for sale behind the counter. So out of sight does not necessarily mean out of mind. Most kids DO know what brand to ask for as well. I went to high school at age 11, most of my peers had their own favourite brand by then, and wouldn´t smoke anything else unless they were desperate. I was encouraged by my peers to smoke, to become one of the "cool kids" so I wouldn´t get bullied anymore, but I turned it down that day, and I always have since then. I have never smoked and never will. But that´s not to say the vast majority of youth is not affected by peer pressure as we know they are.

It´d be a good thing to have smoker´s pubs and non smokers pubs. Means those of us that want to look after our lungs can go to the non smokers pubs, and those who don´t want to stand outside for a couple of minutes can go to the smokers pubs. That way more pub landlords and landladies would stay in business. Just a matter of choosing which one they want to specialise in, if you will.

I know it is an argument that all smokers are angry they are suddenly forced to go outside to smoke whilst us non smokers get to stay inside in the warm, but I thought it incredibly refreshing to hear from that one smoker who said it WAS A good thing to make smokers go outside. If they weren´t so stubborn and keen to hang on to the good old days, and I´m sorry if that reads a little harsh but it is certainly how it seems, then they too would realise the views that this person put forward, that it IS a good thing to put smokers outside to smoke. Saves the lungs of those who don´t want to smoke, and makes the smoker have to consciously make the decision whether to smoke or not, thus eventually reducing the amount a lot of people smoke, and saving them money.

Most smokers will never see things the way non smokers do, but mark my words, when they are lying there on their final day because of a smoking related cancer, they will wish they had tried harder to give up. I speak from experience. And you don´t need a lot of brains to figure out how I can say that as a non smoker. Make the decision. Choose life.

Thailand, which has been my home for the last 3 1/2 years has had laws under which all tobacco products must be "hidden" for a year or so now. People know they just need to ask for cigarettes and they will be sold them. So, any similar law in the UK won´t stop people smoking. What is needed is higher fines for shopkeepers etc who knowingly sell cigarettes to anyone under age.

Thailand also introduced a ban on smoking in air-conditioned bars and restaurants, which is widely ignored. The local "boys-in-brown" (otherwise known as law enforcers) will turn a blind eye to minor infringements in exchange for a contribution to their "tea fund".

Also, there is a law banning off-licence sales of alcohol between 2.00 pm and 5.00 pm and from midnight to 11.00 am. Only the big supermarkets enforce the law and I can buy alcohol at any time from my local convenience store.

Alan

I have just quit smoking, been 31 days without. And I can tell you that nothing the government will do will stop people smoking. Nothing. People have to do it by themselves.