The familiar massed ranks of cigarette packets on display behind shop counters could soon be a thing of the past, if Alan Johnson has his way.
Under planned legislation, supermarkets and, subsequently, smaller shops would be obliged to sell tobacco products under the counter.
Predictably, there is immediate opposition, both from the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association and the smokers' lobby group Forest. Lined up on the other side are the British Heart Foundation and other health groups who are decrying the government's decision to delay any ban on cigarette vending machines and branding on packets.
Given the current financial climate, much of the debate is, inevitably, focused on the issue of economics. Is this, the tobacco lobby asks, really the right time to ask small shopkeepers to absorb a potential drop in takings?
The counter-argument is equally vehement: no economic plea should be able to trump a discussion of life and death. Removing tobacco from display in Finland, for example, saw consumption fall by 10%, studies suggest.
I know where I stand. As someone whose only objection to the tobacco ban in pubs was that it came about 15 years too late, I wouldn't be sorry if I never saw another warning-festooned cigarette packet again. But then again, I don't own a struggling corner shop.
