The reason I was looking at the contrast between the stance on cigarettes and alcohol is that the official statistics for alcohol in the UK (just because they are easier for me to access and I know which sources are trustworthy) are fairly mindblowing.
People categorized as dependent drinkers 600,000
Hospital admissions >1,000,000 in a year
Violent crime 700,000 where alcohol was a contributing factor
Financial cost > £20 billion
Deaths tens of thousands a year
Now personally, this doesn't trigger me to want to ban it, but I wondered where the line is drawn.
Bringing it back to the smoking cessation, I am genuinely interested in the best approaches and though the next bit may be a controversial it isn't intended. Let's call smoking out for what it is and that is self harm. Now regardless whether it is tobacco or another substance or another act, you are not going stop that. It could be argued over the short term at least that smoking could be one form of self harm that people could recover from relatively well if the right education and support structures are available. In the meantime I have to admit I am uneasy with the role anti tobacco measures play in further impoverishing those affected.
Each of us in our own way is recognising the need to eliminate the demand. If you don't manage to do that and have no legal supply then that void will be filled by organized crime. Any and all profits there is a threat to society and the ties between organized crime and terrorism is certainly documented by European Law Enforcement.
In terms of the suggestion of a license to purchase tobacco sitting alongside regular education on the subject, my vision would be to have the likes of the late, great Terrie Hall really hammering home the gamble being taken. I'm not sure anyone could have left one of her talks with anything other than a real wakeup call. You get people making their own minds up that they want nothing to do with tobacco rather than force them into it. Thanks for the recommendation, I will check out the book.