Licence for smokers

SMOKERS should be made to carry a smart card to buy cigarettes, cancer experts say. In a move backed by Tasmania's Cancer Council, two academics are pushing for the card in a bid to reduce smoking rates. Roger Magnusson, of the University of Sydney's Law School, and David Currow, of the Cancer Institute NSW, say it would cut teenage smoking rates. Retailers would have to check the smart card licence to verify every pack sold is bought by an adult, the authors write in today's Medical Journal of Australia. Professor Magnusson and Professor Currow say the card could collect data smokers could use to help them quit. Cancer Council of Tasmania chief executive Penny Egan said yesterday any move that could reduce the state's high smoking rate was worth considering. Noting Tasmania had the country's highest smoking rate, Ms Egan said: "Quitting smoking is of the most important things an individual can do to reduce the risk of cancer." Tasmanian Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne is considering banning smoking for people born after 2000. A motion supporting the ban, based on an idea floated in the Mercury in May last year by Jon Berrick from the National University of Singapore, has passed the Upper House. Despite smoking being banned for those under 18, the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found 31 per cent of the tobacco smoked by adolescents was bought from retailers or online. More info about cigarettes click here.
"Even if a smoker's licence results in some increase in secondary purchasing by adults for children, the overall reduction in access by minors ... could eclipse any other tobacco control measure under consideration," professors Magnusson and Currow say. The pair also want the smart cards to be used to collect data on smokers that can be used to help them quit. A smart card licence would also allow the government to see if smokers' buying behaviour changed in response to industry incentives such as retail price changes. The authors reject arguments the licence would attach a stigma to smoking by making smokers feel like "registered addicts". They argue it would protect choice: "it does not impose a smoke-free lifestyle on adults who cannot, or who choose not to, give up." The 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey report shows 15.9 per cent of Tasmanians aged 14-plus smoked in 2010. Ms O'Byrne said Tasmania had led the fight against tobacco in many respects. "We will always monitor new ideas and new approaches that might help drive down our smoking rates," she said.