GOVERNMENT TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ADDICTS

The Done Thing: Many people, especially pensioners and single mums, cannot afford to smoke now, but they also have not been able to give it up, so they are forced to sacrifice and go without in other areas so as to be able to finance their addiction. Not everybody can afford a spare £35 - £40 a week for a moderate 20 a day habit, neither should they have to. It is not the fault of the smoker that they were born into a world to follow the example of a smoking society. Many older people started smoking at a time when everybody smoked. Smoking was simply the done thing. Everybody did it and you could hardly, therefore, blame anyone for joining in.

Extortionately Milked! As time goes on, and now that we know better, smoking has diminished and probably will continue to do so, but, many people are still hooked and should not be penalised and extortionately milked by being asked to pay out what little money they have. The Government has done little to help these people, and has not even been able to bring itself to ban smoking in public places. What chance do people have when they cannot socialize without being forced to breathe other people's smoke.

Taking Advantage! By setting the price of cigarettes so disgustingly high, the Government are seriously taking advantage of those hooked on smoking in our society, forcing them to pay large amounts of money for their cigarettes and, thereby, forcing them to sacrifice and go without other things. Not only are they forcing the adults into poverty, but many children also, for where their parents are caught in the trap, their children are deprived also. And before anyone says, "People should give it up then shouldn't they!", as any ex-smoker knows, it is not that easy for many of us to do so, and besides, that is no justification for taking advantage of people. In that sense our Government are no better than the heroin dealers who sell purely for profit at the school gates.

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