Point of Sale

As part of its Cancer Strategy Campaign, the UK government will shortly announce a public consultation on proposals to ban (a) the display of tobacco in shops, (b) cigarette vending machines, and (c) the sale of packets containing less than 20 cigarettes.


Point of sale display

To date, there is little or no evidence that banning the point of sale display of tobacco has any effect on the rates of youth or adult smoking. In Iceland, where point of sale display has been banned for ten years, the number of children who smoke has barely changed.

Banning point of sale display seems designed merely to antagonise smokers and “denormalise” their habit. It will have little impact on existing smokers (who will simply ask for their current brand), although it clearly limits their ability to choose alternative brands of tobacco. Meanwhile, human nature being what it is, it is likely to make smoking more, not less, attractive to many young adults.

The major beneficiaries will be the larger retail stories who have both the space and staff to provide designated counters where a far greater variety of brands will be available, albeit under the counter. The losers will be smaller retailers – local newsagents and village stores – for whom the potential loss of revenue (to the larger stores) could be enough to put them out of business.

Tobacco vending machines

Anti-smoking campaigners say a ban on vending machines is necessary to protect under-age smokers. Forest supports strict enforcement of existing regulations, but we object strongly to a ban that would seriously inconvenience some adult smokers who rely on vending machines when other retail outlets are closed or too far away.

If anti-smoking campaigners are concerned primarily with youth smoking – rather than the Orwellian “denormalisation” of smoking – they would consider alternatives to a ban. These would include machines that can only be operated using credit cards or tokens instead of cash.

Sadly, it is typical of the illiberal nature of the anti-smoking movement that campaigners – and many politicians – are deaf to the sort of sensible compromise that can protect young people without restricting freedom of choice for adult smokers.

10-packs

Forest supports youth prevention measures but banning the sale of packs of 10 cigarettes is like banning the sale of small bars of chocolate. If you buy a bar of chocolate, or a packet of peanuts, how often do you consume half and put the other half aside for another day? Very rarely.

If 10-packs are banned, people will continue to buy cigarettes, but they will buy the larger pack and will almost certainly consume its contents in less time than they would had they been able to buy, at different times, two packets of ten.

In Ireland, where the sale of 10-packs has been banned since May 31, 2007, one tobacco company reported that the average number of cigarettes smoked per day rose from 16 to 17 in the months following the ban (Sunday Independent, February 10, 2008).

A ban on 10-packs will deny adults freedom of choice and will have little or no effect on the smoking rate, other than to encourage existing smokers to increase their rate of consumption.
Smoker 

"There must be freedom of choice, something that is fast disappearing in this so-called free country."

Maggie Hambling
artist
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