Bribes to give up smoking.

[joe-90]

That's what they are doing in Dundee. You get £12.50 per week if you give it up. Good idea or more silliness? I must admit it beats me how people in true poverty can afford a £30 fag habit each week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7465908.stm

 

[Bahco]

Good idea but a bit late for me!

 

[joe-90]

You can always start again if you want to make a few bob.

 

[Bahco]

Have to move up North too.

 

[Space cat]

You get £12.50 per week if you give it up. Good idea or more silliness? I must admit it beats me how people in true poverty can afford a £30 fag habit each week.

It sounds like silliness to me. Let's look at this logically. If you currently spend £30 a week on fags you'll be £30 a week better off if you give up. If the NHS also gives you £12-50p a week for giving up, you'll be £42-50p a week better off. Alternatively, the government could put up the tax on fags such that a week's supply now costs £42-50p and give the money to the NHS.

What it comes down to is this: How expensive does an addictive drug like nicotine have to get before you grit your teeth and go through the undoubted misery of giving it up? If your fags cost you £300 a week would you give them up - or would you seriously consider robbing a bank!

 

[NS215]

how would you police such an idea
how long after stopping do the payments last
if it stops people smoking then it can only be a good thing

 

[blondini]

how would you police such an idea
how long after stopping do the payments last
if it stops people smoking then it can only be a good thing

I agree it can only be a good thing if it encourages people to stop smoking, and the answers to your questions are in the link.

Participants in a 12-week scheme will be given £12.50 a week by NHS Tayside if a carbon monoxide breath test proves they have not been smoking.

The scheme is similar to a project used by the trust to encourage pregnant women to give up smoking.

 

[NS215]

cheers blondini
i missed the link

 

[joe-90]

Should you need a cash incentive not to make your unborn child ill or deformed? What kind of society is this?

 

[Bahco]

I have to go to the stop smoking clinic every 2 weeks or so and have to blow into a carbon monoxide machine which measures the amount of CO in my body to see if I have been cheating.

If I pass I get a prescription for the nicotine inhaler which I am finding a godsend.

I would love to light one up though!

 

[joe-90]

I hope my missus doesn't find out there's a machine to see if I've been cheating. I like a 'bit of a blow'.

 

[blondini]

I would love to light one up though!

That's the unfortunate difference between a non smoker and an ex smoker. Best of luck Bahco, don't go back.

 

[blondini]

I meant don't give up on giving up!

 

[Space cat]

Should you need a cash incentive not to make your unborn child ill or deformed? What kind of society is this?

I know somebody who deliberately smoked right through her pregnancy so that the baby would be smaller and easier to deliver!