Will a licensing system reduce underage smoking?

People could need a licence to smoke if suggestions in the latest issue of the Medical Journal of Australia are adopted.

The High Court has revealed its reasons for backing the government's plain-packaging legislation.

Issuing adult smokers with a smart-card licence may be the solution to reducing unlawful tobacco sales to children and helping adult smokers to quit, write a law professor and a cancer expert.

They say the concept of a smokers' licence balances the reality of mass demand for tobacco against the fact that smoking is highly addictive and leads to premature death.

The system would require retailers to verify all tobacco buyers are adults. This is a long overdue requirement, write Professor Roger Magnusson of the University of Sydney law school and Professor David Currow, CEO of Cancer Institute NSW.

What do you think?