Alan Johnson, The Secretary of State for Health, has said that more needs to be done to prevent children from smoking. Speaking to Andrew Marr on the BBC said it was vital that young people were prevented from smoking in the first place, before they became addicted and struggled to give up in later life.
He was talking in reference to plans in Scotland to ban cigarettes from being openly displayed in shops. Under the new proposed measures packets of cigarettes would be kept out of sight. He did say, however, that the Scottish Government’s plan to ban ten-packs of cigarettes was something that would have to be “looked at”.
Smoking is one of Scotland’s biggest killers and the Scottish Government is keen to do all that it can to restrict the sale and availability of tobacco, especially where children are concerned.
The Scottish Government has also proposed the licensing of tobacco and to change cigarette packaging to something plainer in order to make them less appealing to younger people, though in order to implement these laws the Scottish Parliament would need the cooperation of Westminster.
Another move, which has been put forward (and one that is supported by Mr. Johnson) is the banning of vending machines. The obvious problem with these machines is the fact that there is no control over who purchases cigarettes from them. This is a problem that is being addresses in Japan with the introduction of machines that read ID cards and driving licences to prevent the sale of tobacco to minors.
Scotland banned smoking in enclosed spaces two years ago and six months ago the legal age for purchasing cigarettes was raised from 16 to 18.
There are 13,000 deaths every year in Scotland as a result of smoking and 33,500 admissions to hospitals. This costs the health service £200 million. It is yet to be seen whether the new restirictions being put in place will have any effect in practice.