Russia becomes the latest to impose a smoking ban in public places!

[DeathAxe]

In Russia, you don't smoke cigarets. Cigarets smoke you!

[sedith]

Smoking needs to be banned in public all together. What's the use in banning it in train stations in UK for example, if you have to walk through a bunch of smokers at the entrance? You still end up stinking of fags like them.

I agree, it drives me mad having to negotiate through a gang of people stood in the doorway of the pub, smoking. I think the law says 2 metres away from the doorway is the legal requirement.

[Anna Glypta]

Can I ask what your problem with Russians is?

 

This is how they dispose of nuclear waste.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/home/twamoran/urbanghostsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/abandoned-submarines.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2011/08/forgotten-soviet-submarine-graveyard-kola-peninsula/&h=397&w=600&sz=138&tbnid=QG1EBINylT8TJM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=136&zoom=1&usg=__BOrbmVwobUTAZ0B2FNIKhlHCu4A=&docid=sPhAbPmp2q3SkM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5mkrUezYA-TK0AXxzIH4Dg&ved=0CDUQ9QEwAg&dur=673

[sedith]

This is the only answer ... £13.65 a pack and its coming this way!!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/australia-tobacco-tax-cigarette-prices-pack_n_2411188.html

 

If you think cigarettes are expensive in the United States, be glad you don't live in Australia, where the price of a pack of smokes is set to rise to above $20, according to The Australian.

 

The higher price for cigarettes is the result of a rise in the tobacco tax, which government officials say they hope will not only increase revenues by billions of dollars over the next few years, but encourage smokers to kick the habit.

 

"Price increases encourage existing smokers to quit and raise the barrier for people considering taking up smoking, especially young people," the government-sponsored National Tobacco Strategy reads, as The Australian notes.

 

This isn't the first time the Australian government has raised taxes on tobacco, however. In 2010 it increased taxes on tobacco products by 25 percent, provoking panic among smokers, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

 

The new tobacco tax comes in conjunction with new cigarette packaging restrictions in Australia, which forbid tobacco companies from including any branding on cigarette labels, the Guardian reports. As of Dec. 1, cigarette packages must use generic fonts and a drab olive-brown color meant to discourage consumers.

 

Australia's tobacco tax isn't the country's only sin tax. Australia also taxes beer and alcohol, with higher taxes placed on beverages that have higher alcohol content.

 

Although higher tobacco taxes may reduce smoker addiction rates, at least one study has shown that such "nanny taxes," as they are often called, sometimes place a greater burden on lower-income consumers, the Australian reports.

 

But the increase in the tobacco tax may not bring in the higher revenues the Australian government is hoping for.

 

In September, the Australian Associated Press reported that tobacco tax revenue fell by $341 million. The federal government says its anti-smoking measures likely contributed to the drop, according to the report.

[johncocker]

Can I ask what your problem with Russians is?

 

 

 

 

this one comes with its own sound track:D

[Super Hans]

Make them £50 a pack and people would be stupid enough to smoke them. So do it.

[sedith]

I see £13.65 a pack of 20 coming here very soon. Taking the cost of smoking for your 20 a day smoker to £95 per week.

[janie48]

I was in St Petersburg last year when temperatures went down to between minus 20 and minus 30 at night. It's all very well nipping out the back of the Queen Vic for a quick drag, but I bet they'll think twice about doing the same at the Kerschev's Arms. :hihi:

I would imagine you saw more of the city of St Petersburg then i did,possibly because it was known as Leningrad when i was there.

How times change!

As i recall smokers seemed to be everywhere,but then back then the UK was just the same.

[Riannon]

I would imagine you saw more of the city of St Petersburg then i did,possibly because it was known as Leningrad when i was there.

How times change!

As i recall smokers seemed to be everywhere,but then back then the UK was just the same.

 

Indeed. Although you assume I'm not so old to remember when it was St Petersburg before that. :hihi:

 

I imagine that in the communist days the heating was even more defective than it is now. So there was probably little difference in temperature if going out for a smoke. Nowadays with Russian heating some apartments get above freezing point during the day.

[janie48]

Indeed. Although you assume I'm not so old to remember when it was St Petersburg before that. :hihi:

 

I imagine that in the communist days the heating was even more defective than it is now. So there was probably little difference in temperature if going out for a smoke. Nowadays with Russian heating some apartments get above freezing point during the day.

Hotel Leningrad is where we stayed,it was quite a luxury hotel really i,think it was the only one availailable for tourists then,they wanted to create a good impression! we always had a feeling we were being spied on though,i don't know what they could have thought we were going to get up to.

It was at a cold time of the year with light snowfalls but very sunny and crisp.. lovely!

Got out and about a few times,and i wasn't affected by smokey atmospheres ,i was a smoker myself at the time,

 

I just hope that those who are heavy smokers there will be offered the same available help we have here to help them stop,because i know from experience that quiting the habit is far from easy for many people.