Laurie Holmes has patches, Champix and lozenges to help him quit - but he's gone cold turkey without a hiccup.

Hundreds of smokers have joined a Stoptober campaign to give up the habit, and many more will try to quit on their own - with little chance of success.

France is on the verge of introducing some of the most stringent anti-smoking legislation in the world, following Australia's lead - and it could work.

Matt Heath writes: Soon parents will get in as much trouble for putting sugar in their coffee as I did for a tasty little cigarette.

Cigarette-style warnings should be placed on wine showing its health risks and the number of calories it contains, a group of British MPs has said.

Cigarette consumption has long been in decline in the US. But some states and demographics still seem to be clinging on to the habit - and keeping tobacco companies afloat.

Plain packaging makes cigarettes taste worse than branded cigarettes and makes all cigarettes taste the same, new research suggests.

E-Njoint BV is selling its high-tech spliffs at parties, music events, bars and clubs and across Europe.

A barber was "genuinely fearful" of remaining in the presence of an employer who regularly made fun of him and told him "I hate white people".

Women who smoke and are overweight are more likely to suffer a stillbirth than non-smoking women of a healthy weight, a report has found.

Why anyone would want to bring anything but fresh air into their lungs now that tobacco's damage has been well documented, is a mystery.

With appealing fruity flavours and an A-list celebrity fanbase, electronic cigarettes could lead young people into lifelong tobacco addiction, it's increasingly feared.

E-cigarettes with sweet flavours are being targeted at school children and could get them hooked on nicotine, it has been claimed.

Public health researchers say the Government's next step after introducing plain packaging for tobacco should be to make cigarettes ugly.

New Zealand's wine and dairy producers will be forced to export their products without branding in retaliation for Government's introduction of plain packaging of cigarettes.

Is the tobacco plain packaging bill amendment worthwhile? Honestly, I'm on the fence, writes Lee Suckling.

The death rate from cancer has fallen over the past 25 years, but lung cancer will overtake breast cancer as the biggest killer among women within the next few years, said leading experts.

The tobacco industry has ramped up efforts to persuade New Zealand against plain packaging, by circulating research claiming to show the policy has not worked in Australia.

The number of Year 10 pupils who smoke every day has dropped, new figures released today show.

Roll-your-own tobacco is ''more dangerous'' than factory-made cigarettes and should be banned, says Professor Richard Edwards.

Police have warned against a "free-for-all" after a shipping container with a cargo of several million cigarettes washed ashore in Devon.

Future generations will look back with horrified incredulity at how we allowed a cartel of international drug pushers to promote and sell poison legally.

The bully boys of American trade have issued a thinly veiled threat of repercussions to NZ's exports if the Govt persists with plain packaging, writes Brian Rudman.

Tariana Turia has kicked off the parliamentary debate on plain packaging of cigarettes with a warning to tobacco companies not to meddle in NZ affairs.