Scottish Government supports plain packs and wants country 'smoke-free' by 2034
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 at 14:29 The Scottish Government has today announced its new long-awaited tobacco control strategy.
Earlier this week we learned that it would include a ban on smoking on all hospital grounds.
Now we are told that it includes support for standardised packaging and "improved education to create a tobacco-free nation" by 2034.
The key actions include:
- Setting 2034 as a target for a tobacco-free Scotland
- Supporting the introduction of standardised packaging
- Investing in education programmes for young people
- Implementing smoke-free hospital grounds by 2015
- Delivering a national marketing campaign on the danger of second-hand smoke
- Setting a target for reducing children’s exposure to second hand smoke.
Many of our favourite tobacco control campaigners are quoted in the press release that accompanied the announcement:
Sheila Duffy, chief Executive, ASH Scotland, “We owe it to our children to make this happen.”
Dr Harpal Kumar, chief executive, Cancer Research UK:: “We share the Scottish Government’s vision of a Scotland free from tobacco and the commitment to introduce plain packaging is a real step forward in the fight to protect children from tobacco addiction.
Ben McKendrick, British Heart Foundation Scotland: “It’s fantastic to see the Scottish Government leading the way again on tobacco measures to protect health, and giving a commitment to de-glamorise tobacco packaging ...”
Linda Bauld, professor of health policy, University of Stirling: “As part of the other actions set out in this strategy, plain packaging will have a key role to play in driving down smoking rates in Scotland in the future."
Here is Forest's response:
Campaigners have criticised the Scottish Government's support for standardised packaging of tobacco, announced today.
Support for the measure is included in a new tobacco control strategy that aims to create a smoke-free nation by 2034.
Simon Clark, director of the smokers' group Forest which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign, said:
"We support all reasonable measures, including education, that will discourage children from smoking. Plain packaging is unreasonable because there is no credible evidence that it will have any impact on youth smoking rates.
"There is a real risk that standardised packaging, like excessive taxation, will encourage illicit trade and if that happens those at greatest risk will be children because criminal gangs don't care who they sell cigarettes to.
"Plain packaging is designed to denormalise a legal product and millions of adult consumers. What next? Alcohol, fizzy drinks and fast food?"
The Scottish Government's new tobacco control strategy can be viewed here.
Update: BBC News Scotland has the story, with our response, here - Ministers aim to make Scotland 'tobacco free' by 2034.
See also: Plain cigarette packaging wins Scottish Government support (Huffington Post).
We have also been quoted by the Scotsman: Cigarettes and tobacco to be sold in plain packs. Worth commenting.
The Scotsman headline is incorrect, btw. To the best of our knowledge the Scottish Government has no authority in this area.
Angela Harbutt has more to say on this on the Hands Off Our Packs blog: Scottish government can't go it alone – Westminster holds key to plain packaging in Scotland.
Reader Comments (6)
So criminalisation of consumers becomes a reality for those they can't "save". They have now made clear it's not about "the children" nor about health but criminalising young adults of the future that they don't like because they refuse to live their lives as dictated to by the Scottish Govt.
The sooner it becomes an independent country from the UK the better. What a bunch of fascists.
The Scottish Parliament Pension Scheme has invested in both British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco ... what does that tell you about the modern day politicians?
Boycott Scotland! Boycott Scotland!
I find it ironic that a government that's only appeal is its apparent espousal of freedom for its people should be so interfering and authoritarian. At what point will Scots wake up to the fact that the SNP treat them like children and collectively have more in common with Lenin than Wallace?
As for Kumar, Bauld and Duffy, their constant use of children as political weapons echoes the campaign strategies of many other totalitarian obsessives throughout the ages.
This is all being driven by the EU and if my fellow Scots vote "yes" on the 18th September 2014 to Independence then it is set to get worse. The ONLY solution is to get out of Europe and the FCTC as quickly as is humanly possible.
Sweden is now looking at such a move
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3050/swedes_ponder_eu_exit_as_snus_ban_plan_continues
It is time for BAT and Imperial to seek residence in friendlier nations then the public would riot with hefty tax increases being the inevitable result. Go east to the Czech Republic is my message
http://praguemonitor.com/2013/03/26/ods-opposes-total-smoking-ban-restaurants