The UK Smoking Age... should it rise to 18?

Of course. It not only affects the person doing it, but those around them.

I believe that raising the age from 16 to 18 would have only a moderate effect. There are plenty of kids from 11 upwards who have no problems getting hold of booze, and I believe the same is true of cigarettes.

One way round this would be by utilising the national ID cards that Blunkett et al want us all to carry. It is my understanding that buying alcohol underage in the US is quite tricky, as many places will ID anyone who looks under 35. This practice, if adopted in the UK, should drastically reduce the amount of underage smoking (and drinking).

Speaking from experience (of buying alcohol underage) most shop staff simply don't care enough to check IDs for anyone they suspect of being underage. If it was strongly enforced with spot-checks by kids working undercover for the authorities, it may work.

For the record, I am a smoker, but do not really wish to be, and I believe that most people start smoking when they are too young to know better, and by the time they realise it is a 'bad thing' (if indeed they ever do) they are addicted and it is a too late.

Summary: Yes, raise the age to 18, but strictly enforce ID checks, otherwise there is no point.

In the United States the age is 18, at least it is in my home state. I think the age needs to be raised to 30 or 50.

The government tells everyone that tobacco is bad for health. That being in a room of smoke is just as bad as somining. If it really is about health, the government would halt the sale of tobacco.

However the government loves all the tax revenue from tobacco. The tobacco somkers for the most part die younger than non-smokers. So their cost on pensions and Social Security is much lower.

Raise the age, Kids should not smoke, the age should go up to 21 in the UK and in the USA, and places where people can smoke should be where they can not smoke up the air of non-smokers.

Even as a smoker I agree with this. It seems fair to ban smoking in shops, offices etc. In bars & restaurants, it seems fair to divide the area into smoking vs. non-smoking in a ratio equal to that of smokers vs. non-smokers in the general population. I believe this is around 20-25% in the UK.

The following is a mate of mine's response, similar to the views cast forward so far:

"It doesn't make a difference whether the smoking age is increased or not. The fact of the matter is, whenever you walk down the road, you are passed by a twelve year old riding his bike with a cigarette in hand. The biggest problem is that the government will not do anything about it. England is probably the only country in Europe where cigerette and alchohol advertisments are allowed to appear in Formula 1.

The government gets (...p) per packet, and it is a significt part of their income. The only way anything can be done about this, is by increasing other taxes, and no government will get elected if they say they'll increase income tax, so that they can reduce cigarette tax."

---- thanks AJ----

(i'm not too sure about his reference to formula 1 as races can be viewed in all broadcasting countries... but I do see the wider point he is making. Despite laws in place to prevent ciggarette advertising, secondary adverts such as billboards by track side remain.

As for government income; is their real agenda solely about keeping the PSNCR low? Unfortunately for them in terms of public opinion, I think they are the money hungry government I perceive them to be. I also beleive that they have been treating public health as a political agenda rather than a matter of public interest; this sceptical view of the government in the UK is not presented in the United Kingdom as a minority...)

My personal view does not give a particular importance to the smoking age as such. From what I see we are all in agreement that smoking is simply a demerit good and detrimental to the public health. It is an unwarranted strain on the NHS in my opinion; the problem as I see it lies in the early education individuals receive.

From personal experience I can say I received no education about the dangers of smoking until I was 14... This is far too late! The peer pressure exerted on individuals in the UK and I'm assuming the USA, is extremely high from an early age. Unfortunately peer pressure is tougher to tackle. If a parent smokes... is he or she hypocritical from saying "do not smoke" to their children? From the child's point of view it certainly seems so. If your best mate is doing it... why don't you just have a toke eh? What harm could it do... Not so long ago smoking was seen to be fashionable in society and remains so in some areas of the country. A compliment to the UK government in regard to anti-smoking adds on TV I feel is owed to them; they certainly make me think twice before I light up... but that literally is all they do.

I am not a regular smoker but I do smoke in pubs and on nights out. Perhaps I may not be killing myself in such a way if when I was in primary school, & awareness was increased on the dangers of smoking. However leaving the blame game by me on others aside, Increasing the age as a first step would be beneficial to the UK. But more needs to be done asides from government shock tactics to make us feel disgusted about smoking. The old cliche certainly seems to fit; prevention is better than cure.

So far I have received hunanimous praise in favour of increasing the age or a united agreement that smoking should be curbed. Any smokers out there to bring a case against the non-smoker side of the argument? To be honest I am unsure of my allegiance to my health when it comes to not smoking and others around me are. Perhaps you could attribute this to personal weakness and you may be right, however I wonder what it would now take to stop me fundamentally wanting a cigerrete the next time I am on a night out with mates. What would it take for you to fundamentally not want a cigerrette so that you never start? Because it is apparant the adds in this country are just not enough, as shocking and successfully thought provoking as they may be.

Just out of interest, those of you like me in support of curbing the public habit - what do you think made you have this view of having a smoke free environment is best?

Thanks for the input from everybody so far; if you know any smokers get them to write their thoughts on here!

Maybe if they made it against the law to actually SMOKE the cigarettes instead of buying them it would matter more.

In my home state, possession of tobacco by someone underage is a crime. There has been charges brought against children in possession of tobacco.

I think that the smoking age should be raised to 25 everywhere, not that it'd do much good.

Someone once asked me if I smoked after sex. I said, I don't know, I've never checked.

I'm coming back to this topic later. Don't go away...

Yeh I suppose banning them is the only sure option to take but then me being a sceptic that just won't happen in my lifetime, money is just too important in a capitalist society. Passive smoking is the only thing that properly pees me off (can we swear???) about this whole smoking issue.

I mean ok I do smoke but only when I want to I don't see why smoke should be blown down my lungs by other people. I suppose total non smokers would be more feesible to represent that line of argument.

And that joke is really, really bad...

Perhaps DKay, if the legal age to purchase was raised by a year, each year, the number of smokers would gradually decrease as kids, teens, and eventuially those older would not be able to buy them. Pie in the sky, though.

When I go to a restaurant I expect a SMOKE FREE place to enjoy my meal, not just a non-smoking section and a smoking section in the same room. I have left more than one restaurant that failed to provide me with a smoke free area. I do not care if adults choose to smoke, when they do so they need to have a place that provides ventilation to keep the air clear.

As a work place issue, I am surprised that more states have not taken steps of protecting the health of employees in bars and restaurants to keep the air they breath clean.

If I owned a bar, I would offer a smoke free area and an area where smokers could enjoy too, and the ventilation system would keep the air fresh and smoke free.

The best goal would be to encourage all people to stop smoking. However that would take a very long time, and may never happen. The government receives vast sums of tax revenue from tobacco. The State is very two faced in this issue, Don't smoke it is bad for your health, Smoke, we like the tax money you send our way.

A good idea which will seem to work. A smoker mate of mine came over today and saw this, and she put forward an interesting point. What about the right to smoke? Surely an overall ban is an infringement of some sort of human rights law? So far I havent been able to find an argument against her!!!

In response to your suggested scheme, currently as we both live in England it is easy to see enforcing the current age barrier to buy cigerettes is useless... is this really the most effective way you think preventing smokers from smoking should be done? Or maybe earlier education using prevention tactics would be better?

Separately, I wonder if there is a way of getting the government to directly see what people like us think. Do you reckon they scan forums like this in search of public opinion?! I wonder how out of touch people in Parliament really are...

Some of the national chain pubs here have banned smoking at the bar, and have aircon above the bar to extract smoke. Independent pubs haven't bothered much. There are a few pubs (literally a handful) that have gone completely smoke-free. It's a brave move, but it has to happen eventually.

I do object to be told I can't smoke wherever I want when I am outdoors, however (petrol/gas stations notwithstanding), which has started to happen here. Some employers have banned smoking not only in the offices, but on company property as well.

Yeah I've noticed that bars are saying no smoking at the bar, I was in "Original" Bar and they're getting strict about that. My old economics teacher was really into the whole cigerettes damage industries by reducing the life expectancy of labour. Sad sad man. But I agree it's totally detrimental. I mean seriously, what are the merits of smoking other than being shown as social? Nothing!

Me neither. I believe that the right to smoke must come second to the right to clean air for non-smokers. I also believe that the government has no right to ban smoking anywhere. If non-smokers don't want to breath smoke, then boycot pubs until they change. Which market forces dictate that they will, as non-smokers outnumber smokers in the UK by around 4 or 5 to 1.



There has been talk of putting photos of diseased tar-filled lungs & hearts on the boxes, but even then, I don;t know how much effect it would have. Those adverts with the people who've died were pretty creepy at first, but now they stir me little.



It's a nice image I have in my head of Tony Blair being here in A2K in disguise! Seriously though, perhaps we'd all be better off if the governments did check out place slike this to get a better feel for real peoples views, rather than focus groups and committees.

Every now and again, I do really really enjoy a fag - the taste, playing with the smoke etc. About 1 in 10, I'd estimate. I switched to rolling my own shortly after starting smoking (as a uni student), and I've never gone back to buying 'proper' fags. I have one from a mate now and again, and find the taste is horrible - too dry. Non-smokers must read that and think "But surely they all taste the same?" but that is simply not true.

Thanx for that HA! I wonder what she's gonna say... anyway yes I agree with you about non-smokers should have the prevailing right but I suppose politically that would be hard to justify.

And yeah I wonder if there is a government guy somewhere on this forum... this must be the place the cabinet researchers get their information from - I knew it!

As for the merits of smoking, yeah I'm just about to start uni in a few weeks. Ever since I tried an apple Shisha playing with smoke has become so much fun; do u know if shisha's are worse for you than cigerettes? I'm guessing they are because er, the amount of smoke basically. But then it doesnt feel worse... it smells really nice too. The looks of amazement you get when you blow a single perfect smoke ring!! I gotta find a Shisha bar at the town my Uni's in soon. By the way just some useful advice for any people wanting to try a Shisha at London Trocadero - DONT. It's a rip off. If you're ever in Oxford there's a great Lebanese place... belly dancing and all (opposite Sainsbury's in the main town bit). Brilliant. Only a fiver!