I”ve always thought that vending machines made it kind of easy for underage children to get access to cigarettes. Seems like UK Health Minister Andrew Lansley agrees:

“Cigarette vending machines are often unsupervised,” said Lansley, “making it easy for children to purchase cigarettes from them. The ban on cigarette sales from vending machines will protect children by making cigarettes less accessible to them – we want to do everything we can to encourage young people not to start smoking in the first place.”

From today, anyone caught selling cigarettes from a vending machine may be fined up to £2,500. Any person found guilty of displaying cigarette adverts on a vending machine could face imprisonment for up to six months, or a fine of £5,000, or both.