Should the govt stop increasing tobacco prices?

[TheQuirkyMaker]

A cheap packet of 20 cigs now costs about £15. They last a day. Most smokers are in the lower economic demographics. Should we ask the govt to stop hammering us in each budget?

The extortionate price of cigarettes was the spur for me to quit...I regularly go abroad so would bring back duty frees, more than my allowance (all smokers do) so saved some money there, but once I had an offer accepted on a house I quit cold turkey knowing how much I would save.

20 plus years, thousands of pounds later, I know I'll never smoke again, and I hope to god the expense means my dc never start.

Exactly this!

No.
Why should the rest of the country sponsor your poor lifestyle choices

But where does that end?

Do they though? I'm sure I read somewhere that the tax on tobacco is more than the smokers cost in healthcare.

Id say it's the non smokers living into their 90s that are expensive for the nhs and social care

I detest smokers. It’s a drain on the health service, smokers are selfish and don’t care where they puff out their second hand smoke ( including on newborn babies when they happily stand right outside the maternity unit at my local hospital puffing away as newborns exit with their parents), I’m sick the back teeth of working in my office ( which is within a hospital) and having to tell people not to smoke outside it ( plenty of notices to say DO NOT SMOKE HERE but smokers must be illiterate ).
Raise those taxes!

Hell no. Bloody things ought to be illegal.

I am not sure how true it is, but I swear I read that the tax on tobacco raises more money than is spent on the healthcare of smokers.

I just Googled how much tax is raised from tobacco sales vs what is spent on smokers healthcare (I just went for the first results here) .... £2.6billion is spent on them, but £7.9billion is raised in tax.

I have known a few people that died from smoking related stuff, and they were in their 70s and 80s.... an age when people are dying from all sorts anyway.

If you look at the societal damage caused by alcohol (scan your local high street at midnight on any given weekend night or look at DV scenarios or look at cost to nhs)..
Then by that measure it should also be illegal too.

Anyone agree?

Thought not.

It wouldn’t bother me.

I don’t think alcohol is a good comparator. Smokers have been heavily penalised for at least 30 years but more like 40,50, starting shortly after the link between smoking and premature death was made.

smokers are ostracised and any smoker starting now knows a) the danger to health b) that is widely considered anti social and banned in public places and c) it is very very expensive to price it out of existence.

i remember 10 cigarettes being £1.20 and thinking ha ha what good is putting 4p on those going to do? 25 years later Increase after increase we have many people who stopped due to cost. Smoking rates have plummeted- it’s a success story.

how would you propose doing the same with alcohol, when we are easily 30 years away from societal acceptance of it? It’s not even a conversation. You don’t just ban things overnight, particularly one which our economy and society relies on so much.

It would bother the vast majority of people though.

You don’t just ban things overnight, particularly one which our economy and society relies on so much

I was responding to the pp that suggested it should be made illegal.
And tobacco (8bn in revenue to Hmrc) is not insignificant in terms of taxation, just as alcohol is too, which also has its costs to both the nhs and society.

£8bn in taxation isn’t the full story of tobacco, and neither is it with alcohol. We live in a country that doesn’t just ban anything people don’t like. It’s dying out. Fewer and fewer people want to consume it. That’s better than banning anything, surely?!

The govt should have just left tobacco alone and brought in the rising age ban.

That way they'd have had a generation to get used to losing the tobacco money while minimising the length of time smokers claimed pensions or spent sick.

This way, people who smoked for 20+ years may give up so they aren't paying that massive amount of tax any longer instead of shelling out til the day they die.

Those ex smokers live so much longer, generally in ill health and cost the taxpayer extra decades of pension and NHS usage.

Maybe, can only speak for myself. FWIW, our young people and their peers drink far, far less than people did when we were young. Maybe it’s an age thing.

Nope they should go up.

I’ve been quit over 22yrs but if I still smoked, i’d be going overseas for mine. Cheap day trip, save you a fortune.

I honestly do not know how anyone can afford it.
I have a friend who lives on benefits. He gets pouches of tobacco, which I always thought was the cheaper option. It is about £30 a time!

Crazy thing is some would pay it and there would be a thriving market for stolen/smuggled cigarettes

Maldives have imposed a generational ban. Needs a really big country to do it to start the process. Different cultures seem to view smoking differently.The Far East/Africa seems to be more accepting of it

the rising age ban

I think the problem with this is that it places to much pressure on the shop employee..it’s easy with booze and challenge 25, but if you’ve got to start asking people if they’re 26/7/8 and beyond it puts a strain on the shop worker.

It will simply drive people to buy on the black market.

Apparently weed is used by around 6m people in the U.K., although it’s hard to know the exact numbers…no revenue to hmrc either..

Yes a few countries have done this, and it was considered here. I don’t think it’s particularly controversial

I'd ban smoking (and vaping) in all public places and increase the price of cigarettes and tobacco massively. It's a choice, and once priced out more people would be pushed to stop.

This.
I mean, if can't look at someone over 20 and say what their age is with any sort of confidence.
Imagine having to age check someone in their 40s.