An amazing statistic, well amazing to me anyway. Over the period march 2014 to march 2015 sales of cigarettes ROSE by 7% which is the first increase in consumption since 2009.
The reasons for the unexpected increase are twofold it seems. Firstly the worries about unemployment and secondly the worries and fears concerning the current social and financial insecurities potentially affecting most of the population.
Now, cigarettes aren't cheap nowadays. When I gave up a packet of 20 cost about £1 which was a lot of hard-earned dosh for me so for me to contemplate such a 'U' turn would be financial suicide so just how do people fund their smoking habit nowadays and how does the government enhance their 'anti-tabac' campaign to get people off the weed ?
No Peter, the most sensible.
How many smokers have any regard for non-smokers ? I never thought too much about the inconvenience of non-smokers when I smoked. Now I have become an ex-smoker, the worst kind of smoker possibly.
Peter, ciggies do affect me. I am asthmatic and I have to be on alert when I go into a town to avoid those smoking in the street.
They don’ t seem to realise that when they exhale their smoke carries quite a long way.
I gave up in about 1985 Doreen and the first thing I noticed was being able to actually TASTE my food !
I don't begrudge people smoking tho' the stench from their clothes seems to be more and more off putting to me as I get older. The smell of stale smoke is horrible...
I don't have a problem with anyone smoking, if it's legal and not affecting me why should I care ? But the point is as you say Brian ciggies cost so much nowadays how can many people afford to smoke ? The implication of the stats is that the poorer' people or the people more at risk from potential hardship are the most likely to smoke to help with the stresses of modern life or, the same stresses that have always existed but are now magnified because of the way society is. Ciggies are seen as an escape or a palliative treatment to help get through the rigours of life. But how practically, can certain people afford to smoke ? It's all beyond me.....
If I was young again I would go into medicine, eventually private practice. A Big C clinic with a guaranteed flow of clients. Are they all raving mad? It costs so much that it makes trying to survive financially even harder! My OH still puffs away and can see what all the fuss is about, but is thoroughly addicted and a hopeless case who has been trying to give up for four years and has reduced by about one smoke a day! Do they all really want that as well? Madness.
When I was a kid 50 odd years ago, all my mates couldn't understand how I could go to the pictures a couple of times a week and they couldn't.....easy...I was taking back returnable pop bottles that I had found,cadged or nicked whereas they would be spending theirs on single Woodbines or Park Drives. I've never looked back!
Look at Scandinavia: was always expensive due to high taxes. People still smoke. Tobacco is highly adjective and to give up the consumption is so different from each person. Those who have the luxury of much land should grow tobacco.