@TinyViolins

As an American you can trust me when I say.......... it's not working. 😅

@TinyViolins This makes me want to smoke a cigarette.

@HootyTheNightOwl I have seen fewer and fewer tobacco smokers over the last few decades, and don't know any personally, so the combination of tax and growing realisation of the dangers of tobacco must be working.

Instead, nicotine addicts use vapour substitutes, and though those were invented to wean people off tobacco, they are instead creating vast numbers of new addicts.

There are still illegal cigarettes coming into the country, but I suspect that might be diminishing as the criminals turn instead to making high-strength nicotine-vapour products of very low quality and indeed safety, sold on-line, and designed to attract children as well as adults.

My solution to that? Make nicotine products available but of low strength, few if any flavours, to stringent safety standards (if any drug can be aclled "safe"), bland packaging, taxed but slightly less than tobacco so they are still cheaper, and sold only through licensed retailers. Any breach of the licence, including knowing sales to children or of dangerous or illicit products be met on first offence with heavy fines and seizure of those particular goods, second offence risking complete forfeiture and destruction of all stocks and loss of trading licence. The onus would fall squarely on the retailer - and on the addicts hooked by the trade.

What of on-line sales? Legal imports are one thing but the IT companies must be made to face their responsibilities over illicit goods advertised on their services, including being regarded as part of the importer's business.