the same applies to alcohol, but you wont hear so many people moaning about that.

It's actually a far bigger issue when you include things like petrol, because that is targeting the poorest in society

That would only compound the already-present problem of wealth hoarding. I do think inheritance should be easier for "normal families", but not for the very rich and the aristocracy. I'd see it be tax free up to a mugh higher threshold (maybe around £1million) but MORE heavily taxed above that.

In short, I don't think people should be heavily taxed if they inherit, say, a house from a grandparent, but I do think they should be heavily taxed if they inherit real wealth.

No because if you smoke you are addicted to smoking(besides the very rare few who only smoke socially with a drink and they usually bum cigarettes from smokers :fist: ) but most people who drink aren't addicts so might only have a drink once a week or less so the price wouldn't be as big an issue as buying cigarettes

Alcohol is chesp as anything. I can go to Lidl and can drink all night and get well pissed for £6.18

Drinking in a pub is getting expensive though. I was in a hotel a couple of weeks ago and they charged €10 for a glass of wine

I don't do it any more unless there's some occasion like a funeral or something. Why would I pay all that money for a pint and then be made to go outside to smoke. When I can drink 8 pints for just over £6 and smoke in the warmth and safety of my home?

I think a lot of people are thinking the same or you'd be more likely to have a just a couple out and have a drink at home before or after instead (or up in your hotel room :p )

The big difference is in the type of addiction - it's quite "difficult" to get a physical addiction to alcohol, "casual alcoholism" is a social crutch or psychological addiction and that really has to go on for a while before a real alcohol dependence occurs (though when it does, it's a horrendous thing).

Smoking is almost the opposite - most people could psychologically "take it or leave it" but physical nicotine addiction kicks in FAST and is hard to shake... the main reason people are hooked on nicotine products is the nicotine itself (and how they feel if they DON'T have it), not the effect.

I do think smoking is an odd one, in terms of if it's exploitation. 30+ years ago I might have said yes, it is unfair exploitation, there was a huge amount of mixed messaging about smoking and the effects on health ans probability of addiction, so it seems totally wrong to get people hooked on a product and then repeatedly raise prices.

These days though? I'm not so sure. No one who has had their first smoke in the last few decades chose to do it without being in full knowledge of the facts;

1) It's bad for your health
2) It's addictive
3) It's expensive

... ... ... and with that in mind, I can't say I find it particularly abhorrent when taxes are raised on it. Anyone who claims they didn't know about the downsides BEFORE they took their first cigarette has to be lying.

Ahh, Uni life... leave the house already drunk to the gills, top it up through the night for less than £10 :joker:

Not just Uni life anymore my friend :laugh: like I said when we stayed in a hotel a couple of weeks back we had wine stashed in our room, we had a couple of glasses with dinner and then I asked them for an ice bucket and we went back to our room to drink our own wine :hehe:

Wouldn’t be so bad if you got a higher yield on ISAs, and you could pop unlimited amounts in every year.
But yes, tax on savings interest is naff.

Of course the new generation are all vaping now, i don't think very many young people (as in under 20) smoke actual cigarettes anymore (I doubt they could afford to anyway)

Tobacco’s a drug quite alright, and it’s not even socially acceptable for people much younger than 25 to smoke it now.

You need to get yourself a passport and a cheap flight to Spain my niece gets all her tobacco on trips its a quarter of the price

Amber leaf is around 87 or 88 euros for 10 packs. 174 Euros for 20 pouches (50g) which included a free bottle of whisky or vodka

See how we are ripped off in this country

To be fair though - tobacco isn't the drug, nicotine is the drug and as Niamh says the teens-and-twenty-somethings are vaping up a storm ... and it's been found that the nicotine intake from vaping is MUCH higher than from smoking. Partly because of the intake method, partly because a lot of people who vape vape CONSTANTLY all day long, whereas in smokers, true "chain smoking" (50+ a day) is quite rare.

Basically... it's tasty and more socially acceptable. Should it be? I dunno... but it just is. When we travel to see family we always stay with my sister in law who is in her mid 20's and a heavy "vaper". She sits with us in the evening in a constant cloud of vape and it honestly doesn't bother anyone ... whereas if we were sat in a cloud of cigarette smoke... well, we just wouldn't stay there at all to be honest.

A 50g pouch of Amber Leaf lasts me about a month (i have to put lettuce in the pouch after a week or 2 to keep it moist) and i get that off a "mate" for £20.

I vape CBD occasionally (and take it in other ways) but that’s the extent of it so I can’t comment from personal experience about this business of vaping e.-bifta juice. Just that lots and lots of people aged 40 or younger do it, and so do older people to some extent (especially the ones looking for a replacement to actual cigarettes). Certain pubs will still direct you outside if you want to vape (even CBD). Going outside every time you want to vape is just a long thing so I like it when people recognise that vapes aren’t like really cigarettes and make more allowances for “smoking” it indoors.

Australia has just banned recreational vaping. They're only allowing it with a prescription, to help people quit smoking.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-65446352

Sorry yeah I meant Amber leaf I could become a tobacco mule I suppose, I know my niece sells some on :laugh:

Does anyone here still smoke actual cigarettes, out of interest?

From what I’ve seen it’s still a fairly common-ish thing for people aged 24/25+ but to the people who grew up in times where smoking was more-and-more actively shunned governmentally (starting with kiosk-shutters and then plain packaging) it seems to be almost non-existent. People who smoke weed in this part of the world (including teenagers) often make their spliffs with tobacco (often Amber Leaf, obviously) but that’s probably the most tobacco anyone under a certain age actually smokes these days.

If you got issues buy some tissues
No one is born with a fag in their mouth or a needle in their arm

I only know one person who still actively smokes. A few who will still have one or two with a drink when they're out. Even my dad (who smoked for 50 years) and both of my in-laws (both smoked for 30+ years) have all quit smoking now. Father in law was on-and-off for a few years but has totally kicked it now.

The smoker I know is my aunt, who is in her early 70's, had massive alcohol problems for decades but got sober in her early 50's and has been teetotal for 20 years now... but she still adamantly hands onto her cigarettes. In her words to her doctor when he suggested as she was getting older she might want to stop - was that he could pry them from her cold, dead hands :joker:. She's very content with being a smoker and quite protective of her one vice, haha.

HORRIFICALLY, babies are actually born addicted to heroin, every day. It crosses the placenta so if mum was shooting up in pregnancy, baby is born an addict. Horrible situation.

Like I said tobacco tends to go into people’s spliffs these days than actually be smoked on its own so I’m not surprised. You still see a few people of all ages who smoke (especially at/around the pub and whatnot) but I know social/alcohol-induced smoking doesn’t really count, not if you wouldn’t actually do it normally and spend half of your lunch break blazing up on Benson and Hedges or Silk Cut (Silk Cut used to be one of my favourites when I was a regular smoker).

I wouldn’t worry about your aunt. The world needs more June Brown/Dot Cotton figures.

My father in law still smokes actual cigarettes, he's 82. I have a friend who quit smoking fulltime but she keeps a box of slim menthol cigarettes up in a cupboard and she'll have one or two of those the odd time with a drink (maybe every few months)