What???? There is no minimum age for smoking in this country. If you can get hold of cigarettes you can smoke just as legally at 6 as you can at 60. It is only BUYING cigarettes that has an age limit.

And for your information, annual excise duty on tobacco products currently gives the government 3-4 times as much money as it spends on the entire NHS in a year, so it looks like it’s actually non-smoking related sick people that are a drain on the UK’s smokers, rather than the other way around.

The idea about ‘dirty brown smoke’ is an interesting one, but smoke is disgusting and dirty enough without being brown. I’d personally (as a non-smoker) much rather smoke stayed the discreet colour it is currently.

Most of the smokers I know have (perhaps grudgingly) accepted the ban, and surely that’s enough?! A complete ban WOULD cause mass smuggling. You just have to look at the American Prohibition (1920 – 1933): it sparked an underground market which manufactured and sold unsafe products, and smuggling on a huge level. Do we really want that?

And what about costs of cleaning places up from cigarette smoke, discarded butts, etc.?

It’s a no-win situation at the moment because they put the prices up to discourage people from smoking which increases smuggling. If they put the prices down they won’t lose so much duty to smuggling but more people will smoke more because it’s cheaper. Something has to be done to discourage smoking that isn’t anything to do with price. People will pay for their addiction regardless of price.

Who are we to say what pleasures people are allowed to enjoy so long as it does not interfere with the health of others?