'Charge smokers for right to buy cigarettes' - Telegraph: mokers should be forced to apply for an annual £200 licence in order to purchase cigarettes, a Government advisor has suggested.

The scheme would ensure smokers had to make a conscious decision to continue the habit and require people to become "registered addicts".

The £200 charge would be used to fund the licence system Prof Julian le Grand, a former advisor to Tony Blair, floated the idea during a speech this week. He also proposed banning food manufacturers from adding salt to products, an exercise hour for all employees during the working day and free fruit in offices.

The smoking permits were immediately lambasted as an excessive nanny state measure and "political suicide", given that their introduction would alienate the one quarter of British adults who smoke.

A report from the Department of Health yesterday revealed Britons are more likely to die from smoking related diseases than Europeans. They also drink more alcohol and eat less fruit and vegetables and are the fattest on the Continent.

Prof le Grand, who lecturers in social policy at the London School of Economics and advises ministers through his chairmanship of Health England, said the idea was to make healthy choices the norm and force those who object to make a conscious effort to opt out.

Once the scheme was up and running, it could be extended so smokers had to get a doctor's signature that their health was not at "massive risk" by smoking in order to get a licence.

He admitted there could be a problem with an emerging black market where those with permits sold them to those without, and that it could create the impression that as long as one is licensed smoking is not harmful.

Prof le Grand told the Telegraph: "There is nothing evil about smoking as long as you are just hurting yourself. We have to try to help people stop smoking without encroaching on people's liberties."

(Read Original Article - Via telegraph.co.uk .)