Laws will hurt the smokers

Could the death knell be about to sound for cigarettes? Don’t hold your breath!

In a few weeks time a new set of laws come into force aimed at making the habit as unappealing to youngsters as possible.

New plain packaging is the biggest visible change being earmarked, but by the end of May, you won’t be able to buy fags in packs of 10 anymore and the menthol cigs will be smoke of the past.

If you still want to buy cigarettes after the new laws come into force, it won’t be cheap.

A packet of cigarettes will cost at least £8.82. That’s an expensive habit.

Short of selling cigarettes in packets wrapped in barbed wire, it’s hard to see what more the government can do to put you off buying the product.

They’ve even gone as far as decorating the new packets in what has been described as the ugliest colour in the world. It will be a kind of browny green sludge, officially called Pantone 448C.

Couple that with a graphic photograph of lung disease on the cover and the uninviting words ‘Smoking Kills’ writ large, what more can be done?

Well, the government could simply ban smoking altogether. The cost to the NHS would be reason enough to nip the habit in the bud. Smoking not only costs lives, but it costs millions in trying to keep smokers alive.

Of course, the government has a few good reasons to keep cigs on the market. Well, about 10 billion to be precise.

That’s how much, give or take, the Treasury rakes in from the tobacco industry.

Government and cigarettes is a marriage made in heaven.

In sickness and in wealth, you could say.