IN RESPONSE to Brian Coultish’s letter on the proposed ban on cigarette vending machines, I can honestly say: “What twaddle.”

When will people realise that teenagers always do what they are not supposed to? This ban would increase the number of teenage smokers – and other smokers, too. People are sick and tired of being told what they can and can’t do.

The best thing that could have been done here was to say: “Wow, smoking is so cool”, then the teenagers would never start.

Professor Patrick Basham, senior fellow of the Cato Institute, discusses this issue and concludes: “If the Department of Health had bothered to look at the international evidence on the effects of tobacco advertising restrictions, it would have seen that countries that have had advertising bans for 25 years have not experienced statistically significant reductions in youth smoking.”

In short, the Department of Health admits its tobacco display ban will “have no immediate effect on youth smoking for a decade”.

I would therefore say: “educate, don’t regulate”. Bans and prohibition of any sort very rarely work.

Judith Morris, Moorland Road, Fulford, York.