Cigarette vending machines banned in England

Good idea.

not a good idea, a great idea. If kids start smoking in their teens they are 95% certain to be hooked on nicotine for the rest of their lives. And of course eventually they die of lung cancer.

Hopefully the DPJ will sell off JT and then after ban the cancer vending machines.

Finally >.< I honestly hate living in England and going to school here because of the amount of underage smokers and drinkers. It's stupid really, which is why I support this ban. I also don't like David Cameron as our prime minister but I must be honest and say that he is helping put our country on the right line (I would guess it would take another 10/15 years to put someother problems near the end like teenage pregnancy, underage drug and alchohol abuse, etc)

The ban on vending machines is good but cigarettes are so expensive from those machines (10 pounds for 16 cigs) that I can't imagine many kids buying from them. It's also illegal for anyone under 18 to even enter a pub so how are they using them? On a large scale I mean. But yeh at least it's doing something.

I also agree on the price thing too, but since people nowadays have older friends like a 14 year old being friends with someone 18 or over, they usually get them to the fags for them.

Vending machines for cigarette sales defeated the objective of underage sales, so it is good to see the back of them.

Glad that the machines are going.

Marketing, penalties to stores for selling to minors, and education will curb this addiction. Removing vending machines is another good solution to remove the presence of tobacco from people's lives. Raising the price of a drug is not. Addicts always find a way to pay for their drug, and to penalize addicts further for the red-herring that is tax money for healthcare is simply illogical. Smokers are not the only ones with cancer and heart-disease.

Daddy government has to tell the little citizens what they can and cannot have because "they" know what is best for them. As-long-as the vending machines are where minors cannot use them, there is no reason for them to be banned. Is Britain no longer a country where freedom is important to it's citizens?

elbuda mexicano:

This is a step in the right direction for Britain but I wish they also got serious about banning CHILD CAGE fighting

Your ignorance is absolutely beyond belief! Just because isolated incidents are reported, you seem to think the whole country is into child cage fighting. Can you please stop your blatant racism and ignorance at other countries like UK and China and concentrate on problems in your won country. There, people are getting shot at, chopped up and mutilated. Now that is one hell hole. At least the UK is doing something. A two yen hike in the price of ONE cigarette will do F.A.!

won -> own

"Daddy government has to tell the little citizens what they can and cannot have because "they" know what is best for them."

"little citizens" = 11 to 15 year olds. Are you comfortable with this age group making an informed, intelligent decision about smoking? More so than the "daddy government"?

cracking stuff

Good job, and about time. That was done in NA about 25 years or so ago, if I recall. SOME day Japan will follow suit, but not for another 20 years or so, I reckon, and before that they'll try to implement other 'safety features' first, like the Taspo card.

Hmm, don't japanese cigarette vending machines been requiring the use of a taspo card for a few years now? Don't think those cards are issued to people under the age of 20.

All the measures are useless if they can get it via a store that don't check the age or an adult buys it for them. If the kids want it they have their ways of getting it.

Unless in NA underage kids can't lay their hands on them now or on liquor, etc

A revolutionary and somewhat radical measure, tobacco vending machines having been around for as long as I can remember: more than 60 years! But all for the good (meaning becoming illegal). Of course one can never completely eradicate smoking by youngsters, that is not the target. The target is to make it as difficult as possible. And now it's all about enforcing the law.

Japan has a thing with vending machines. They are omnipresent and include the cigarette machines. Smith is a little pessimistic about them being phased out. I bet on 10 years!

Huh, I didn't even know they still had those things, guess I never thought to look. Cigars are more convenient anyway.

Cigarette vending machines should be banned worldwide. I hate these cancer sticks but so many people are dying to buy one. Smoking kills.

A half-measure that cuts too far into freedom. Preventing kids from using vending machines is great, but why go all the way to preventing adults too?

I wish governments of the world would get more serioius about the unnecessary garbage they put in cigarettes which is as bad or worse as the nicotene. I can only hope that cracking down on vending machines is a stepping stone to that day.

Vending machines will not be illegal in the England. The machines can still be used if behind the bar where the public has no access and the machine is plain without advertising brands.

WolfpackOCT. 02, 2011 - 11:01AM JST Daddy government has to tell the little citizens what they can and cannot have because "they" know what is best for them. As-long-as the vending machines are where minors cannot use them, there is no reason for them to be banned. Is Britain no longer a country where freedom is important to it's citizens?

Only a right winger would equate freedom with lung cancer. The fact is when a smoker gets cancer we all pay via taxes or insurance premiums for his hospital bills. Only four year olds and libertarians think we live in this world alone.

No great loss to the world. There were very few machines left anywhere, and they were shockingly expensive.

Kids can get cigarettes lots of other ways.

I suspect this move was just an easy way to get max publicity.

Hmm, don't japanese cigarette vending machines been requiring the use of a taspo card for a few years now? Don't think those cards are issued to people under the age of 20.

It's Me -- Hmm, could it be that you are missing a kep oint here? Taspo cards or not, having cigarette machines on virtually very corner of Japan, and all the wide-spots in- between the corners -- sends the wrong message to young people. Basically it provides "free" advertising for a product which everyone knows is highly dangerous to your health. And sends the subliminal message that the society/government condone it, since it is logical to assume that they would be removed if they were dangerous, right? Japan has been described as a dinasour as it pertains to tobacco, and it continues to be so. Taspo is just PR.

@paulinusa:

"little citizens" = 11 to 15 year olds. Are you comfortable with this age group making an informed, intelligent decision about smoking? More so than the "daddy government"?

Apparently you responded to the first part of my comments without reading through to the end. If you had, you would know that I stated...

As-long-as the vending machines are where minors cannot use them, there is no reason for them to be banned.

My point is to say that "adults" do not need the government telling them what legal products they can or cannot consume. Although Liberals like to push the boundaries down, I do believe that the government has a duty to regulate products to ensure that those that the community has not yet deemed capable of making informed decisions on their own are not put into a position where they can.

grow your own tobacco

JGal, I am sure many kids in the UK, like France or the USA or even here in Japan are growing their own stuff, but I really doubt they are wasting their time groing tobacco, more like Maui wowie, Acapulco Gold etc..right??

Well the ban on machines will have no lasting effect. None at all really as the youngsters will just get their supply by other means. Banning all smoking sounds nice but will just create another criminal class and fill up the jails. This measure is so simple minded as to be laughable. Great pap for reelection bids, a great inconvenience for adult smokers. So what will happen is drunk smokers driving from the pubs/bars to the stores for their smokes.

Ms Otani; The article is not entirley correct. Pubs and bars may still sell tobacco and cigarettes from behind the counter. Vending machines can also legally be used but this must be in private parts without public access. he customer must ask the staff to make the purchase from the machine. The machine must also have no advertising on it.