The Adam Smith Institute is the UK's leading innovator of free-market economic and social policies.

you don't say.

So you are criticizing their analysis?

no, i think it's a stupid thing, and i hope it doesn't happen. although i do wonder about the fact that the writer says, 'Whether to smoke or not is our right, not an allowance from the State.'

aren't you people all about your 'negative rights' and shit

also, this is not reflective of the overwrought analysis of course, i love this single comment:

i once saw as 12-year-old ghetto kid, on american television, say 'of course i smoke pot. it takes me two pieces of fake ID to buy a pack of Marlboros.' so much for the smoker's license fee.

let's break this down.

i once saw as 12-year-old ghetto kid

ghetto = black

on american television

on a show on UPN

say 'of course i smoke pot. it takes me two pieces of fake ID to buy a pack of Marlboros.'

yes this is not possibly a joke, people smoke pot or cigarettes, they are interchangeable and have the same effects

so much for the smoker's license fee.

how does this even tie into what he said previously in the argument?

;-)

A positive right imposes a moral obligation on a person to do something for someone, while a negative right merely obliges others to refrain from interfering with someone's attempt to do something.

Get it? The government is interfering with the attempt to do something.

I am not a UK resident but I smoke. How do I buy my smokes if I visit the old Dart once this licence is made law? Do I have to fill out the 'complex form' and wait for some chair-warmer in Whitehall to tick the right box whilst trying to enjoy my two week package tour with nicotine withdrawal symptoms running full tilt? I pity the rest of the poor sods sharing the coach with me.

a negative right merely obliges others to refrain from interfering with someone's attempt to do something.

so it's a right to smoke?

i mean, i don't care if people smoke, but i guess i never considered it a right.

I am not a UK resident but I smoke.

as of now, you can still take your own with you, i suppose

Well, I am sure the author would argue that there is a right to smoke (so long as you aren't doing so in a way that infringes another's rights).

It is a right to buy the cigarettes, that he's talking about.

Dragonstaff: Stop in any other euro-country on your way to the UK and buy a carton of cigs there ;-). It's what everyone in Britain will be doing.

Yeah, That is ok for short trips. My wife did six weeks in Scotland last year playing in the Edinburgh Tattoo and that idea wouldn't work in those circumstances. I guess I was really thinking about that sort of time in-country rather than the package tour situation.

someone will have some contraband to sell you in Scotland.