In response to the Khan Review on the government’s ambition to make England smokefree by 2030, Daniel Pryor, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, said:

“The Khan smoking review is nanny-statism on steroids. 

Raising the smoking age every year is just a stealthy way of making smoking illegal and creates a bizarre two-tier system of adulthood. Do we really think 21-year-olds asking 22-year olds outside shops to buy cigarettes for them is a rational state of affairs?

Moreover, plans to massively jack up the price of a pack will clobber poorer smokers and drive them into the welcoming arms of a booming black market. These are the very people that the review claims to be helping. 

Everyone already knows that smoking is bad for your health. If graphic health warnings on plain packs aren’t deterring today’s smokers, it’s hard to see how writing health warnings on individual cigarettes or painting them green will make a difference.

Smokers need the carrot, not more of the stick. The only sensible aspect of this review is the acknowledgement that the Government should double down on the success of safer smoking alternatives like vaping. But even then it takes a lukewarm attitude, dismissing any reforms targeted at reduced-risk products like heated tobacco and snus: which help address the different preferences of different smokers.”

Notes to editors:

For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Emily Fielder, emily@adamsmith.org | 0758 477 8207

The Adam Smith Institute is a free market, neoliberal think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.