A few years ago I used to do WRVS voluntary work twice a week in the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital. I pushed a sweets/newspapers trolley around the wards on one shift, and served in the WRVS shop on a Saturday evening on the other shift. The hospital (as all in UK now) has a total no-smoking policy everywhere, even outside the doors. What used to amaze me on arrival in the car park was the number of ciggy addict patients in their pyjamas, bandaged, in plaster, tottering about, some even wheeling drip-stands along behind them, smoking frantically to make up for the hours of abstinence on the wards. Even in the rain, the wind, sleet - there they were. The number of patients, visitors, staff that used to ask us in the shop if we sold cigarettes was astonishing. (Of course we didn't!) The look in their eyes said it all - "No 'fix', no relief from the craving - what shall I do now?"
I later did work with prisoners, some of whom were heroin addicts. The same look in their eyes was there. (I was once or twice even asked if I could smuggle some 'brown' in for them!) The government should do all in its power to stop the sale of tobacco products completely. The lost revenue would surely be regained by the decrease in NHS costs over time.