[Judas]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

They just need to appear to be doing stuff to make people stop. Afterall, surely if they were that concerned about peoples health, they would just stop selling cigarettes/tobacco all together.

Loads of people seem to support this conspiracy, and I understand why. Smoking DOES make the government money but I really do think they want to cut the smoking rate - else why would they spend billions on schemes to try and cut the rates. In a way the government have some kind of stable income from cigarettes, so it makes a certain percent of revenue. As more people quit, the tax goes up. Simple. I personally think they want a low smoking rate so we appear better in all of the global health indexes.

I smoke/d so I am not of those people saying this just to be against smoking.

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by Judas

Loads of people seem to support this conspiracy, and I understand why. Smoking DOES make the government money but I really do think they want to cut the smoking rate - else why would they spend billions on schemes to try and cut the rates. In a way the government have some kind of stable income from cigarettes, so it makes a certain percent of revenue. As more people quit, the tax goes up. Simple. I personally think they want a low smoking rate so we appear better in all of the global health indexes.

I smoke/d so I am not of those people saying this just to be against smoking.

Its dead simple to answer that one, they invest money in advertising etc, so that they are seen to be doing something.

Otherwise one day in the future some smoker who is slowly dying of some smoking related disease/illness could take the government to court and say, "how come you never informed us/banned smoking?".

The way that past governments have imposed controls on not only smoking but other health related issues (COSHH, Sale of foods etc) negates the possibility of being sued for taking taxes through tobacco while at the same time not bothering about the health of smokers.