A Licence to smoke?

[ivykaty44]

Would you start smoking if you had to go and get a licence to buy ciggy's? Although for people that already smoke I think it is a bit of a no no - for teenagers I think it may well decrease the youngesters from taking up the habit.

lifestyle.aol.co.uk/health/healthy-living/stop-smoking/call-for-annual-10-smoking-licence/article/20 080216092109990001

cant we just ban everything and never leave the house?

expat - I see what you're saying, but the fact remains that it is perfectly possible to drink alcohol responsibly in a public place eg restaurant or pub. You don't have to drive after drinking, or drink so much you become aggressive. The difference with smoking in a public place is that it does affect others by the very act of doing it.

Look, this whole idea comes from Julian Le Grand. Which tells you everything you need to know. Clever-clever without being at all practical or achieving anything.

And Cote has a point - especially as this idea comes from an economist. Smokers on average die younger and they pay a massive whack in extra taxes - many times even the most extreme estimate of the cost of smoking-related disease, however much you try to load the figures. (I have what you might call a professional interest in this and checked the figures with the Dept of Health.)

that's why it's been BANNED in public places, alfie!

that's not what this is about. that is a done deal.

this is about a license to smoke, which is still a legal activity, as is drinking alcohol, eating junk and fast food until you grow obese and develop a disease (in many areas of the US, where smoking is a decreasing habit, obesity has now caught up and/or surpassed smoking as a leading cause of preventable death), etc.

so why not license it all?

I bloody well wish you did have to buy a license to go to MacDonalds, then maybe I'd have an excuse to not have to do the drive-thru with my kids.
I guess, expat, the reasoning is that a license could deter young people from starting to buy fags. They'd still have the crafty puff behind the bike sheds and cadge off other people, but might be put off progressing onto buying their own.
Hardened smokers would I guess just buy their license and get on with it - which I agree is up to them.

if someone wants to get their hands on something they'll find a way to do it.

i know this from my own youth.

and because the drinking age was so high - 21 in the US where i grew up - that made underage drinking even more appealing to nearly everyone at my high school except the bible bashers.

they have a big problem with binge drinking and drunk driving there, although not was much with the open drink-fuelled violence as here because that is punished quite stringently and severely by the law.

putting obstacles in the way of it just makes it more appealing to a lot of young people and is a PITA for everyone else participating legally in the activity.

if the government is going to go that far then they may as well just show some balls and ban it altogether except inside your home/on your property.

Oh I totally agree that the best thing would be total ban apart from inside your own home. That would have a dramatic effect, especially as teenagers would have to wait for their parents to go out to have a crafty puff - most parents I know, even ex-smokers themselves, wouldnt tolerate smoking in their house by their kids.
Putting certain barriers in the way can sometimes make youngsters more inclined to do something - but I'm not convinced that a license would necessarily encourage them. I think the beaurocracy involved might put a few off. My teenage dd can't be arsed to fill her form for a passport for her holiday at the moment, so I doubt she'd be arsed to do any unnecessary paperwork

nah, she'd just buy on the black market or go hang out with friends with more permissive parents.

meanwhile, everyone else gets Big Brother more deeply rammed up their backside for engaging in a legal activity.

well Ihave to buy a TV licence and car tax disc and last i heard watching TV and driving were perfectly legal.
At the end of the day it's not a huge issue about the licence. As you say, if people want to smoke they'll do it. It's well known enough that it's bad for you, smells pretty vile and that if you're a smoker then your own kids are more likely to be one... so I guess if that doesnt put you off a license sure as hell won't!!

So is alcohol addiction.

Let's license buying it, too.

Now I definitely WOULD get my license for that