License Could Be Required to Use Tobacco..

February 17, 2008 - Professor Julian Le Grand, Chairman of Health England has come up with a great idea. Smokers could be forced to pay £10 ($19.61 USD) for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way. Professor Le Grand, a former adviser to ex-PM Tony Blair, said cash raised by the proposed scheme would go to the National Health Services. Le Grand added: "70% of smokers actually want to stop smoking. "So if you just make it a little bit more difficult for them to actually re-start or even to start in the first place, yes I think it will make a big difference." He said it was the inconvenience of getting a permit - as much as the cost - that would deter people from persisting with the smoking habit. "You've got to get a form, a complex form - the government's good at complex forms; you have got to get a photograph. "It's a little bit of a problem to actually do it, so you have got to make a conscious decision every year to opt in to being a smoker." A department of health spokeswoman did not rule out such a scheme as part of the next wave of tobacco regulation. ('£10 licence to smoke' proposed, BBC News, 2/15/2008)

Related news brief: SMOKERS, heavy drinkers and obese people will be banned from NHS treatment under a new plan..

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