A person wrote in my daily tabloid letters page today about how easily young kids can get cigarettes from vending machines when they are supposed to be banned from buying them out of the shops.

I agree that it is a nonsense that the law attempts to enforce a ban on youngsters buying cigarettes from the corner shops but makes it childishly-easy,( pun intended ), for them to get access to cancer-sticks via vending machines.

As vending machines - just like unsupervised tanning booths - are also unsupervised the kids don't need to try to get them from bent and greedy shopkeepers when they can even more-easily get them from such unquestioning machines.

What do you think ? ( And please don't chuck the "nanny-state" argument at this question as the state is SUPPOSED to protect young people from themselves ).

Bent and greedy shopkeepers are the weapon of choice next time you pass a cig machine check the price but to be honest I think those machines seem to be going the way of the dinosaur any way.

Yes Jason ?????

Vending machines have always charged a very high markup for cigarettes and that has always been a bone of contention for me. Now that I have stopped smoking, ( more than twenty years at last count), the prices that they charge do not really concern me.

Having said that, the young people who find that that is the only way they can get their hands on fags ARE still being ripped off for VFM.

One would think that the very high cost of cigarettes would have caused many young people to stop but this does not seem to be the case.

Thats addiction for you I guess !

I agree that these machines should be banned as they make a mockery out of the cigarette laws.

What has this got to do with you guys at all? If a smoker wants to pay inflated prices for his fix that's his problem. Didn't you guys learn anything from prohibition?

Red

You see Red...that is EXACTLY where you continue to miss the point:

Firstly, cigarette addiction can not be equated with drinking to limits as while drinking to excess might be damaging to the health it is only damaging to the health of the drinker. Smoking in public damages the health of everyone in the vicinity.

Secondly, we are not talking about informed adults here we are talking about young people and children who should REALLY be encouraged not to start smoking at all.

Finally, If you had once ounce of feeling for anybody but yourself and your personal addictions you couldn't fail to see these points without having to have them rammed down your throat.