Cigarettes to be sold 'under the counter'

[Titus Andronicus]

Cigarettes will have to be 'sold under the counter' in moves to be announced by the Department of Health today.

Research has shown that children recognise many brands of cigarettes Photo: PA

Tobacco products will be barred from display in shops despite fears it could hit small stores during the economic downturn.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3684589/Ci...

The new restrictions come after an extensive consultation on measures to reduce the number of children who take up smoking and helping those already addicted to quit.

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Sales from vending machines will also be restricted as research has shown children can buy cigarettes from them easily even though they are supposed to be in places where shops owners and pub landlords can supervise them.

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Research has shown that children recognise many brands of cigarettes and prominent displays of products helps to reinforce their familiarisation which influences them to take up smoking. A study in California found children aged between 11 and 14 were 50 per cent more likely to smoke if they had been exposed to tobacco marketing in corner shops.

Shelves full of cigarettes also lure those trying to quit smoking into buying more packets or tempted those trying to quit to buy them, the Department of Health consultation said.

Launching the consultation in April, health minister Dawn Primarolo said: "It's vital we get across the message to children that smoking is bad. If that means stripping out vending machines or removing cigarettes from behind the counter, I'm willing to do that.

"Children who smoke are putting their lives at risk and are more likely to die of cancer than people who start smoking later."

Other countries have already banned the display of tobacco at the point of sale or are planning to do so including Iceland, Thailand, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.

Latest figures show 22 per cent of adults smoke in England, which is down by 1.9m since 1998, and the Government is on target to reduce this to 21 per cent by 2010.
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Among children nine per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds smoke regularly, rising to one fifth of teenagers aged 16 to 19. More than three in ten 20 to 24 year olds smoke, which is the highest of any age group.

I would support this here in the States.

[emilyg]

1. I would support it, too.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

2. A plain brown wrapper or a plastic baggie---kids will get it if

they want it.

Soon it will be unlabelled beer and booze.

Hysterical !

[Xenotime]

3. A nasty habit that still needs more regulation

[lib2DaBone]

4. Ya.. great... Let's create a black market for cigarettes......

.. then we can have drive by shootings and as the price of cigarettes goes to $100 a pack we can put a few million people in jail for possession of a controlled substance.

[SlicerDicer-]

5. its on the list to make illegal I swear

[Mojorabbit]

7. Yep

it is working the way down that path.

[Titus Andronicus]

8. You can't smoke anywhere these days. Everyone makes a face

or dramatically waves there hands in the air, and this is if you are smoking on an open beach with 4 people on a 1/4 mile in California.

[parasim]

10. Yeah, or they do that annoying 'cough, cough" bit...

... like they are really about to die of some sort of respiratory disease because you decided to have a smoke.

[SlicerDicer-]

15. I tend to think of my smoke as cleaner than the air in LA...

ROFL....

And yes I am being serious... Flying into LA from outside... My eyes burned... throat burned and all that good stuff... I am a smoker too! Must... Chain... Smoke... Burn.. And... Purify!!! Air!!!

[stillcool]

6. makes good business sense!

prison labor is so attractive. But maybe the drug companies can sell smokes. Half their drugs will kill you faster than a cigarette will.

[On the Road]

9. It's a Noninvasive Method of Suppressing Demand

Sounds like a win-win.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. That's kind of funny to me

because I remember almost all of the cigarette jingles that were on TV when I was a kid (probably accounting for half of the non-toy commercials I remember from that time), and I used to "smoke" candy cigarettes from realistic-looking "packs". But I never took up the habit, especially after smelling "Smoker Sam's" "lungs" in school science class, reading about the 1964 Surgeon General's report when I was 9, and watching the nifty anti-smoking commercials on TV (especially the "Johnny Smoke" one).

[MadHound]

12. Gee, are they going to do the same thing with alcohol?

What about all that candy they put at kiddy eye level? Both of those will kill you also.

Sorry, but I find this whole notion of seeing will lead to smoking just a bit far out there. I'd love to see this so called study, what their methodology was, and who paid for it. My guess is that it's a bunch of BS paid for by one of the nanny state organizations like the Heart Association or such.

[nc4bo]

14. Lots of kids know the Budweiser horses and the Captain Morgan leg-up stance too :S nt

[angrycarpenter]

13. Kids will always get them the same way I did

I stole them from my parents.

[SoCalDem]

16. and by having older kids buy them

The fact that they now cost so much and have to be locked away probably helps more than anything.. kids have a harder time stealing them than before... They used to be on "twirly-racks" and were quite easy for kids to steal..

[pinto]

17. Poster is no longer with us.

Locking.