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?

Why would you want it to be easier for your friends to buy something that's killing them?

I want the handful of friends I have that smoke to bloody stop! Because I quite like them and don't want them to die an early death of something awful. Anything that makes it more difficult to smoke 20 a day (like that normal ffs) is fine by me.

Either give up smoking…an alternative would be to ban it

No, they should keep going up £1.50 for a packet of 20 every year.

Filthy, disgusting, stinky, anti social habit. Dreadful for your health, your bank balance, and anyone in your vicinity who has to put up with your minging habit.

I can't believe anyone still smokes in 2025. Around 97% of the people I know don't smoke. My 2 DC (who are around 30) don't have any friends or colleagues who smoke. It's not in their orbit. The only ones I know are 3 or 4 neighbours and 1 colleague of DH's. All 45-50+.

I see a few people vaping, (who never smoked cigarettes,) and it's batshit that they even started. Vaping was meant to be a way for people to stop smoking! Bloody daft starting it!

I remember when Margaret Thatcher came to power and straight away doubled the price of a packet of 20 to 50p. I said that's it - I quit - wages were £42.50p a week for 37 hours

I still buy the odd packet, all these years later I still cant quit totally and its the cost that stops me smoking more, I have a couple on the days I work so a packet lasts me 10 days usually. If I could afford them, Id be on 20 a day or more

Well they have a choice to stop/cut down. Any gp will help

The price increase is actively trying to make you quit though isn’t it?
I don’t care if anyone wants to smoke, thats their own lookout. I would however remove any NHS treatment for smoking related conditions, booze too. You should have to pay yourself for any self inflicted illness.
Risky activities should be covered by insurance before anyone points out you can break your leg running up a mountain or something!

Exactly. No-one needs to smoke. Anyone who still smokes, when it's £14-£16 for a pack of 20, needs to give their head a wobble. Start taking steps to quit this minging habit, don't whinge that the prices are going up.

@TheQuirkyMaker

I don't smoke. I know people who do, though, and each price increase is hitting them hard.

No sympathy from me. If the price rises are 'hitting them hard' they need to quit. It's an expensive luxury that no-one 'needs!'

I KNOW it's hard. I did it myself. Used to smoke and quit some 20 years ago. People saying they can't give it up are not trying. Anyone who wants to give it up WILL give it up.

The smokers ARE paying though with all the tax they pay

Booze is tricky though. Yes to anyone who causes expensive fixes because of alcohol abuse, but the 'one glass of bubbly at a wedding' types having to pay for expensive treatments (e.g. cancer treatment as alcohol is linked to cancer) because they have the odd drink? That's not ok.

Even with smokers, to what extend can someone demonstrate that a smokers lung cancer was caused by smoking? Non smokers get lung cancer

my 40 a day gran died from bowel cancer, who could say whether smoking caused that?

as above, what about someone who has an accident whilst drinking - who can prove it was caused by drinking?

totally unworkable

The difference is, smokers are smokers and smoke regularly. Drinkers can range from the odd bubbly at a wedding to raging alcoholic.

No, you couldn't say smoking was the only cause of the bowel cancer, but you can reliably say it was a contributing factor.

Everything is increasing, so why not tobacco. Would you say the same thing about baby milk, baby wipes. What about medication that people would literally die without having it??? Smoking is non essential, but baby milk and medication are - so maybe ask why prices of things like that are increasing

You can’t though. Like, genuinely can’t. There is no way of knowing why cancerous lumps formed inside your bowel. It’s very much genetic too.

eta- 20 years after her death her children and grandchildren had had bowel cancer or signs of increased risk. How can you go back and say sorry for letting you die, it was obviously genetic but you’re a smoker so we let you die of anything without trying to treat it.

Yes lots of cancers are genetic and not environmental. Aldo no proof that alcohol directly causes cancer. Look at George best who died of liver disease and not cancer. My mum was an alcoholic and died of a heart attack NOT cancer.

No one has said just "let the smokers die" just that smokers should have to pay for the cost of treatment.

But that’s not a realistic statement to make, as you can’t directly relate treatment or disease to smoking

I think the price should go up. The higher the better. I think there should be help for people who want to stop though.

And if it were to be introduced (which realistically it never will), then that is another risk smokers will have to justify to keep smoking. If I get a terminal illness, whether caused by smoking or not, can I afford to pay for treatment.

Smoking is legal, so I think £15 is quite enough for a pack for now.

I despise cig smoke, but I do think that smokers will do other things rather than be utterly fleeced - such as getting them in bulk duty free, buying stolen/illegal ones etc. Also, a minority will fund their habit with crime.

There is only so much you can fleece one group for. The Laffer curve concept does apply to cigarettes if you tax the fuck out of them.

Absolutely not - no one needs to smoke, if you cannot afford it, don’t smoke. Different if you were talking about actual essentials like food, healthcare, etc but not cigarettes 🙄

People are addicted though. I once worked with a smoker and he said he was smoking as a result of poor teenage decisions. He was in his 30s and hadn't managed to quit.

Unfortunately though Margaret Thatcher and every other PM told us that the taxes added to cigerettes / tobacco would go directly to the NHS

So smokers are paying more into the pot than non smokers and you want to deny them care?

Even if the money doesn't go directly into a separate pot labelled NHS, smokers ( and drivers ) are paying a hell of a lot more into the coffers then non smokers/non drinkers/non drivers , they are entitled to their share of said pot