[Shelley_c]

I agree with dean, smoking for teens and earlier (heck, I seen 6 year olds group together smoking away) think it's super duper cool to smoke but I tend to look at it in the long run. Whilst for the first 5-6 years it may become cool to smoke the person soon regrets it (in the mature age) and finds themselves in a situation where it's not so cool to smoke, but rather they rely on it and haven't got the willpower to give up. Addiction kicks in and the government could tax and raise the prices of cigarettes as much as they can and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference. Well, not enough to make an impact on the masses, they might reach out to a few select people but the masses will continue.

Because I'm a regular at one of the 2 major heart hospitals in the uk I seen alot of people who have been brought in to have heart bypasses performed on them and they have still got the bandage where they have still been opened up on and still need to be stitched up (waiting for another operation and still they are outside having a cigarette. Adding more tax and/or raising the prices again will not make any difference, the growing issue for some people of people on welfare or otherwise will still bombard our hospitals needing major operations to the point the nhs and the private sector are at breaking point.

If someone has the willpower to give it up after so many years well done to them but the impact on those few will barely touch the problems of over crowding in hospitals and/or for the majority to give up educing a never ending circle of problems both for the people treating them and themselves.

Not sure about this thread it's taking some twist and turns and each response seems to be different from the last so I'll end by saying sorry for the bad english, I'm english.