10-pack cigarette ban begins tonight
Yes indeed, at midnight tonight it will be illegal for retailers to sell packs of cigarettes smaller than a 20 pack. Kind of. They’re getting a fuzzily defined grace period to get rid of their existing stocks of 10s. Benson & Hedges, ever the cunning tobacco industry dogs, now sell 20 packs with two 10-boxes inside. Cunning. I know the idea is to deter young people from smoking by making cigarettes more expensive to acquire, but this ain’t gonna work. They’ll just do one of two things: Go halves with a friend, or (*shock*) save up the massive €6.something that a 20 pack costs and smoke ‘em over the same period they’d smoke two packs of 10!
I’m a non-smoker and don’t like being surrounded by smelly cigarette smoke (thank you smoking ban!), but this is just retarded. That said, aren’t Ireland and the UK the only places where cigarettes are available in 10 packs? I’ve never seen anything but 20s overseas.
