It was said by the government's health education guru in The Times that the tobacco companies are continually getting new recruits in the form of teenagers.

Might I, with all due respect, be permitted to ask "how"? Advertising is banned, sponsorship is banned, indoor public smoking is banned, sales to under-18s are banned and shops within sight of school gates do not carry any brand advertising visible outside (the latter being a voluntary measure introduced by the industry itself).

Is it perhaps time for the anti-smoking activists to look into the mirror and debate with themselves whether their efforts have led to a "forbidden fruit" syndrome taking hold within the very group that is susceptible to it, namely teenagers? Or is the tobacco industry to be blamed for this as well, in defiance of any logic? Since many anti-smoking initiatives defy logic, this would not surprise me.