I don't think it'll make a difference. I'm a smoker and most of my family are smokers. I could care less what the packs look like, I don't buy it for looks lol. I used to be able to smoke one or two cigs a year but now I've turned it into nearly a pack a day habit. It is VERY hard to quit. Mostly the cravings. I know for my parents anyway for them the hardest part is the withdrawel from the nicotine, but they've been smoking for YEARS. I don't know just personally I don't think changing the looks or adding bigger warnings will really make a difference...

i use to be an off and on smoker. ya know, start and stop when i want to.. now i only smoke when im stressed or when im drunk...

but as for the *disgusting pics* on the boxes, i doubt people will stop..

I don't know if changing the packaging (I remember the yucky pictures from when I lived in Canada) will make current smokers stop.

But I wonder if it would keep people from even starting?

i'm not a smoker but i don't think that it would make a difference. whether they have scary pictures or not. it is already advertised everywhere that smoking causes cancer, etc. people will still smoke

i smoked for like a year and a half and quit cold turkey. anyone can do it and i have a huge addictive personality. pictures do deter me from doing things/buying things. i want to have a long healthy life. i want to control my body. now let's hope i don't get hit by a car.

My husband did the same thing, he had smoked cigarettes from the age of 12 to 20, and he quit cold turkey. He was also addicted to meth and using heavily, he quit cold turkey. He has been clean for 5 and a half years and never relapsed. You have to TRULY want to quit or it wont work.

yup, because smokers totally keep smoking because of the pretty packaging. what a retarded idea.

i also don't think it'll keep new people from it. it's not about what's on the package. the gross pictures didn't deter people picking up the habit. i doubt plain packaging will.

I don't know if it is still in the works, but this was the plan for the UK as well, as someone who used to work in a shop we would have to keep our plain packaged cigarettes away from the view of customers, searching for 20 L&B out of hundreds of white packets while your customer gets annoyed doesn't exactly seem appealing.

I wouldn't even kiss a girl that smoked. Cancer sticks are gross!

I always thought the idea of the pictures on the packaging and all the TV ads was to make buying smokes or smoking socially unacceptable, it's not "cool" to smoke anymore. Could also make someone trying it for the first time think twice because of a picture of a dude with mouth cancer on the pack.

I think the only way to cut down numbers is to hike the prices up higher and higher until they become unaffordable.
We are having a price rise on cigarettes tonight according to the news.

should we do the same with unhealthy food, and emissions from cars, as in zero emissions?

I don't see why not. I wish unhealthy food was expensive... it makes it less attractive when you can't afford it. Which means I wouldn't be such a fatty :P HAHA!

I think it would help deter people from picking up the habit, but I don't think it will scare everyone into quitting. It would probably have the biggest effect on kids who may be vulnerable to smoking as adults, if they'd always put those pictures on boxes I probably never would have started. Most people do know the risks and have seen pictures of black lungs and all that. Having it in your face every time you smoke a cigarette would probably be hard, but I bet people start just putting their cigarettes in different containers so they don't have the look at the package all the time. At least, that is probably what I would do. I don't think it would give me the drive to quit smoking, thought it might help, but nobody can tell me or show me anything that I don't already know about the risks. I'm not going to quit until I get the will power to do so. Unlike some people who've expressed the simplicity of smoking, after being a daily smoker for 6+ years, I can tell you that nicotine withdrawal is not fun whatsoever. Even just the habit of picking up a cigarette at certain times of day is hard to break.

simplicity of ***QUITTING smoking,

My theory is that anything that is seen as bad or is forbidden, instantly becomes more attractive. That's one of the reasons I tried smoking when I was young: because it was rebellious ;D
Things like this just make cigarettes more attractive to kids.

I think people are going to smoke regardless of what the cigarette packaging looks like. I knew what smoking does to your body & I started anyway. Smokers have all started some where, & I bet money they knew what smoking did to you.

I also agree that since it was rebellious, I tried it. Along with drinking, drugs, all that stuff. People are going to do what they want to do.

I am considerate of those around me. I don't smoke by an entrance of a building because I'm not the only one in the world. I don't smoke around other people unless it doesn't bother them or they're smoking, too. My parents find it offensive so I have never once smoked around them - even if we go on trips together.

it won't stop me.
Recently they've put the no smoking in public places & you must be nine meters away from the doors law, as well as all cigarettes must be in a cabinet/storage place that has doors and is not in plain view.
Neither of there have stopped me. I smoke on the proper side of the painted lines or rails that were installed outside of every establishment.
I go to the counter, ask for my brand and don't even blink at the little warning pictures anymore.
/shrugs.
i'll quit when i'm ready.
the inflation on cigarettes is crazy. I pay $8.50 for a pack of 20 regular size, brand name menthols that used to be $6 a pack.
i refuse to smoke 'native' or 'reserve' cigarettes that you can get 200 for $13 illegally around here.

the packaging won't stop smokers who want to smoke. packs here usually say that it causes lung cancer or birth defects or that quitting now will reduce the risk of death, etc. most people i know who smoke (myself included) would probably take the cigarettes out of the pack with the nasty pictures, and put them in a cig holder. they're not hard to find (or make), and most fit like 10 cigs and a lighter, or a whole pack. i think it's a personal decision to smoke. i don't agree with smoking around children, and i always ask when i'm around people i don't know or people that don't smoke, and i have no problem if they say they do, i'll go elsewhere or wait. i won't be rude about it. as long as they respect that it's my choice to smoke, i can respect that it's their choice not to. i intend to quit at some point, but for now i enjoy it, it relieves some stress.
most people's only argument against smoking is how bad it is for you. i like this quote to retaliate against that argument (even though it's true):

"that's the trouble with most people, they want to live forever. when you turn round to them and tell them that you're just living your life, and if that means you'll be dead in three years, that's okay by you, they hate that. there's no answer to that. if you don't mind not reaching 40 then there's no argument against it is there?"

i find it amusing and ironic, and even sad, but true.