In this year’s budget the Irish government decided to increase the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes by 1 whole euro, contrary to its plan years ago to increase the price by 50 cents of a euro each year. Last year the price of tobacco in Ireland rose by 75 cents of a euro, again as an exception to the general plan of increase of 50 cents every year. The increases add to the already unaffordable price of tobacco products in Ireland, as well as Britain and other countries around the world, where they will cost at least €18.
In Britain the same price is at least £11.40 which is equivalent to €13.26, much less than the €18 in Ireland where a law is proclaimed to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21.
On the other hand, raising the minimum age for buying tobacco to 21 years is a much more popular policy than the ban directed at adults on buying tobacco that the British Labour Party in government is preparing to enact, according to which no one who comes of age after the corresponding law comes into force will be allowed to buy tobacco instead of citizens who are already of the age of majority in advance that will reduce in number over time until they decease. At the risk of phasing out smoking gradually from British society, and until it happens that smokers who will forcibly decline in number will be isolated from the rest of society.
The British smokers’ right group FOREST, however, has opposed both measures on the minimum age to buy tobacco, admitting the incomparably greater severity of forced abandonment of the habit of smoking by all citizens through the exclusion of future generations. Its chairman, Simon Clark, stated most recently with regard to the increase in the price of tobacco products in Ireland by a full €1 that: “Smoking is a legitimate habit. This brutal hike in the cost of cigarettes will drive more smokers to the black market and fuel illicit trade. Law-abiding consumers, many of whom are on low incomes, will be unfairly discriminated against, and some may be forced further into poverty. It’s hard to imagine a more punitive or counter-productive measure because the only people who will benefit are criminal gangs and illicit traders.”
Bring Back Smoking Freedom 