CHILDREN as young as 12 are being given nicotine patches to help them stop smoking.
Shocking? Hardly. If kids are smoking at 12 then we've got every responsibility to help them stop.
Several schools in Barnsley have already signed up to the Government campaign but it's produced a knee-jerk reaction from parents who feel they're b
eing nannied.
Well it's hard to see what the problem is. If kids are already addicted we need to get them off cigarettes. Fast.
Of course, we should also be pouring money into prevention - schemes that stop kids thinking smoking is cool. But we cannot just abandon the ones who have been daft enough to try fags and get themselves hooked.
One wise mum welcomed the plan saying it was a great idea and she didn't want her kids to die of cancer.
Quite right, too. Anyone who has lost a loved one to cancer would surely throw their weight behind measures to cut the killer cigarette down in its tracks.
Resistance to the campaign probably has more to do with parents feeling their parental responsibility is shifting beneath them and that the Government, schools and teachers are intervening in their lives. That may be so, but we've all got to work together for the common good.
We might not like to see our kids flaunting nicotine patches or chewing fag replacement gum but what the alternatives don't bear thinking about.
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