100,000 petition against plain packaging

A petition against standardized tobacco packaging in the UK has attracted more than 100,000 signatures, and more than 50,000 people have written personally to the Prime Minister opposing the initiative, according to a press note from the smokers’ group Forest.

Standardised packaging has been the subject of a final six-week consultation that closed on Thursday.

“The response demonstrates the enormous level of opposition to this ill-conceived measure,” said Simon Clark, director of Forest, which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign. “We urge the prime minister to think again.

“There’s no evidence standardised packaging will have any health benefits. Advocates base their arguments not on facts but on speculation.

“There must be no rush to legislation. It’s a huge step and no government should take it lightly.

“The UK government should not be gold plating EU regulations. Before introducing plain packaging ministers should wait and study the effectiveness of the EU’s revised Tobacco Products Directive that includes larger health warnings.”

Clark then widened the debate by saying there was genuine concern that if standardized packaging was introduced for tobacco, the same could happen in the case of alcohol, sugary drinks and confectionary.

“Government has to get off people’s backs and trust the consumer to make informed choices without unnecessary and unwelcome state intervention,” said Clark.