The Facts
The UK government could soon make it mandatory to insert messages inside cigarette packs to help smokers quit.
The Department of Health and Social Care is soliciting consultation support on Monday to seek views on adding and designing pack inserts into tobacco products, including cigarettes.
The Spin
Narrative A
This news should be applauded. Deaths from smoking remain one of the leading preventable causes of illness and mortality in the UK. By helping millions of UK residents quit smoking, the British government can help people live healthier lives, lower the death rate for tobacco-related diseases, and reduce healthcare costs.
Narrative B
Grisly photos and heinous warnings printed on cigarette packets alone haven't deterred people with a high nicotine dependence from smoking. Being a smoker is a willful, personal decision, which is why the UK government — almost a decade behind achieving its target for England to be smoke-free by 2030 — is bound to fail in combating a killer addiction without more substantive action.