Just found this on the BBC News Website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

 

 

Executive 'to raise smoking age'

 

 

The Scottish Executive is backing plans to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 16 to 18.

Raising the age for purchasing tobacco products was recommended by an expert group on smoking prevention, which published its report on Wednesday.

 

The executive's health department said it would now begin preparatory steps to implement the change.

 

Ministers were considering whether it would be possible to make the change before May's Holyrood election.

 

Preparatory steps

 

The power for ministers to raise the age came in the legislation banning smoking in enclosed public places, but requires to be activated through regulation.

 

An executive spokeswoman said: "The executive welcomes this report and in particular its support for the raising of the tobacco purchasing age.

 

"This executive will begin the preparatory steps for implementing this recommendation which will, of course, be subject to the outcome of appropriate consultation, especially with young people's organisations including the Scottish Youth Parliament."

 

The executive-commissioned Smoking Prevention Working Group made 31 recommendations to Health Minister Andy Kerr.

 

The group, which includes academics and health experts, also wants tough fines for shopkeepers who break the law and a "negative licensing" scheme so shops which repeatedly sell cigarettes to under-age youngsters are barred from selling tobacco products.

 

Colleges and universities should consider how to help youngsters avoid taking up tobacco or other drugs, the report said.

 

The report, written on behalf of the group by Dr Laurence Gruer, director of public health science at NHS Health Scotland, said the recommendations should form the basis of a five-year plan by the executive.

 

The report quotes 2004 figures which suggest that 5% of boys and 7% of girls are regular smokers at the age of 13.

 

This rises to 14% and 24% by the age of 15.

 

"More than any other single thing, the cigarette has blighted the health and shortened the lives of people in Scotland for over a century," the report said.

 

 

The report was written by Dr Laurence Gruer

 

"If the health of people in Scotland is to be improved and inequalities reduced, smoking prevention must be a top priority."

 

Anti-smoking campaign body Ash Scotland, which was represented on the group, welcomed the findings.

 

The British Medical Assocation's Scottish general practitioners committee also supported the recommendations in their entirety.

 

Smokers' lobby group Forest said it was supporting the plans and that smoking should be "for adults".

 

 

 

 

Any thoughts? :unsure:

 

 

 

 

If people are allowed to have sex and work then why shouldn't they be allowed to smoke... people may be addicted at 16/17 so they can't just stop them from being allowed to smoke... and they will still get them anyway ...

boo!

 

Of course it shouldn't be lowered! At 16 your more than capable of making up your own mind, wether it be on sex, work and what you do to your body. Raising it to 18 wont make a difference, it will just make people do it illegally, like drinking. The age limit on that is 18 but it doesnt stop anyone :lol:

theres no discipline.... thats why kids have sex, smoke and drink at a far too young age

This age thing is all very crazy isn't it? You can legally get married in Scotland at 16 without your parent's permission but you can't buy alcohol or (now) buy a packet of fags.

And I agree, it's unlikely to stop anyone taking up smoking and getting addicted. Most teenagers who go on to be regular smokers have probably tried smoking and become addicted before age 16 anyway.

 

Bet the rest of the UK follows suit ( that seems to be the way of it at the moment). <_<

this should happen in england too, 16 is just silly, 18 is for alcohol, and smoking is sometimes classed as worse -_-

I think it's rediculous.

It won't change a thing anyway. Don't know why they bother.

Don't suppose it's actually occurred to people that by doing this it may have the opposite effect to the one that is intended.... ie, it'll make smoking about 10 times cooler to just about everyone under 18....

Don't suppose it's actually occurred to people that by doing this it may have the opposite effect to the one that is intended.... ie, it'll make smoking about 10 times cooler to just about everyone under 18....

 

Exactly!

theres no discipline.... thats why kids have sex, smoke and drink at a far too young age

 

I dont think it's the way people are brought up by parents that causes that [although sometimes it is the case] I mean i had a disciplined upbringing but it didnt stop me doing any of the above when I wasnt old enough.

 

sometimes its the case of if someone says no then you do it, by raising the age limit of this it will make people want to try it

It should stay as it is and instead have the price per packet raised by £2-3 so that would hopefully price cigarettes out of the range of chavs and so on

^^ That's not fair on normal people though.

 

Also if chavs cant afford it they might resort to stealing money to get them.

^^ That's not fair on normal people though.

 

Also if chavs cant afford it they might resort to stealing money to get them.

 

Then they (normal people) should give up smoking :)

 

There is no reason why anyone can't give up smoking

but what if people dont want to?

 

Would you like it if they put an extra £3 on a pint/bottle of beer [i realise cobra is your choice :P ] simply to stop underage drinking?

Then they (normal people) should give up smoking :)

 

There is no reason why anyone can't give up smoking

 

You didn't mention anything about chavs stealing to get the money? Can't see how raising the price helps stop young people smoking at all...

but what if people dont want to?

 

Would you like it if they put an extra £3 on a pint/bottle of beer [i realise cobra is your choice :P ] simply to stop underage drinking?

 

Exactly. It's supposed to stop young people, not adults. :rolleyes:

Then they (normal people) should give up smoking :)

 

There is no reason why anyone can't give up smoking

 

oh please - what a load of self-righteous tosh!

 

More interesting is the news today that the new law to allow people to buy cheaper duty-free fags and booze has been rejected.... with the Treasury calling it a 'common sense victory'.

 

On an average pack of fags costing £5 - did you know the treasury rakes in a whopping £3.21?! The question Mr Brown must now be forced to answer is this..... When people are bullied into giving up smoking next April..... and his fat chunk of revenue from fags disappears - where will he get the shortfall in his coffers from then?

 

I sense colossal tax rises to compensate - let's see how smug and self righteous the anti-smoking bores will be then, eh?

 

And as for the 'smokers drain the NHS' nonsense - smokers, like non-smokers, pay whopping amounts into the system. If we are working on the premise that non-smokers should get priority treatment - then hopefully we'll carry that across the board - so someone who has a family of 5 kids would be far further down the NHS waiting list than someone who has no children - because they'd have already 'drained' their NHS quota, thus costing the state more - working on the aforementioned level - the childless person, who hasn't recklessly shagged his way round the country producing sprogs, thus has cost us lot far less - so surely that childless person should receive priority healthcare?

 

It's not what I want or agree with - but if we're saying non-smokers get priority over smokers - this is what surely must happen...?

oh please - what a load of self-righteous tosh!

 

More interesting is the news today that the new law to allow people to buy cheaper duty-free fags and booze has been rejected.... with the Treasury calling it a 'common sense victory'.

 

On an average pack of fags costing £5 - did you know the treasury rakes in a whopping £3.21?! The question Mr Brown must now be forced to answer is this..... When people are bullied into giving up smoking next April..... and his fat chunk of revenue from fags disappears - where will he get the shortfall in his coffers from then?

 

I sense colossal tax rises to compensate - let's see how smug and self righteous the anti-smoking bores will be then, eh?

 

And as for the 'smokers drain the NHS' nonsense - smokers, like non-smokers, pay whopping amounts into the system. If we are working on the premise that non-smokers should get priority treatment - then hopefully we'll carry that across the board - so someone who has a family of 5 kids would be far further down the NHS waiting list than someone who has no children - because they'd have already 'drained' their NHS quota, thus costing the state more - working on the aforementioned level - the childless person, who hasn't recklessly shagged his way round the country producing sprogs, thus has cost us lot far less - so surely that childless person should receive priority healthcare?

 

It's not what I want or agree with - but if we're saying non-smokers get priority over smokers - this is what surely must happen...?

 

Absolutely, I agree. And, by the way, I'm a NON smoker, just not a non-smoker who's a self-righteous prat that believes that smokers should be barred from smoking in bars and clubs....

 

Considering that smokers are paying over three quid tax on a pack of 20 then they ARE contributing to funding the NHS (well, if indeed that is where the taxes on booze and fags is actually going, we only have the Govt's word for that...ha ha... More like being chucked into the bottomless money pit that is our continuing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan....but I digress..). The funding crisis in the NHS is being caused by incompetent management and the endless army of accountants, managers and other assorted pricks (ooops, sorry, I meant to say 'financial consultants'...) that are drawing a wage that should be going to nurses or doctors, or, perish the fukkin thought,....PATIENT CARE......

I don't think it will have a massive impact on getting kids to smoke/not start in the first place. It will only increase then number of people who buy fags for underage people, which is illegal.

 

England will no doubt follow this idea soon...

Well scotland just always has the best ideas. :rolleyes:

 

Raising the age limit won't make a difference. 13 year olds still manage to get their hands on cigarettes. Bring back the belt, I say.