Health Bill [HL]

I strongly support the amendment for several reasons. It is slightly worrying that the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, is supporting as a good thing the findings of a survey which found that children under the age of 18 are smoking. I do not think anyone is arguing that we should deregulate smoking to include under-18s. The problem is that when under-18s start smoking, the addictive potential is extremely high. That is precisely why the tobacco companies have a great interest in very young people smoking. The Minister referred earlier to the report from the Royal College of Physicians that compared the addiction factor of nicotine to that of other drugs. Nicotine came top when compared with heroin, cocaine, alcohol and caffeine in terms of dependence among users; equal top in terms of difficulty in obtaining abstinence; equal top in terms of tolerance, that is, the need for a higher and higher dose to get the same effect; and top in terms of its serious effects on society through deaths from cigarette-related diseases. The point made by my noble friend Lord Crisp is that although vending machines account for only 1 per cent of all sales, they account for 17 per cent of all sales to the under-18s.