SMOKING is not illegal in this country and, despite all the health warnings, there will be some people who persist in smoking either through addiction or choice.

As British tobacco prices are twice as high as abroad, there will be smuggling.

And so while a few nicotine addicts get their cigarettes for reduced prices, the rest of us are left with an array of problems.

The Treasury loses £3.5bn a year in unpaid duty which would certainly assist in improving our public services.

Buying from smugglers damages local corner shops which are a vital hub of our communities.

The smugglers are usually connected with organised gangs whose principal trade is drugs, so buying 20 cut-price cigarettes actually fuels the supply of heroin and crack-cocaine which, in turn, does so much damage to all of us through increased crime.

Finally, these smugglers appear to be targetting children with their starter pack cigarettes - this is cynical but not unbelievable because we know that drugs dealers stand outside schoolgates recruiting new customers.

Obviously, then, people should be beseeched not to buy their tobacco from the smugglers. But it is understandable that they do when they can save so much money.

Therefore, two options remain. Firstly, we could harmonise our taxes with the rest of Europe. This would remove the problem in an instant.

However, successive British governments have recognised that smoking is so bad for people that they need to be persuaded not to do it. We would certainly be living in a bizarre world if our government actively encouraged people to smoke and to kill themselves by making tobacco cheaper.

Therefore, one option remains. Increased investment in customs and border protection.

This makes sense beyond preventing the smuggling of cigarettes and, indeed, drugs.

The rush to legislate on gun crime is partly because our borders are so open that weapons from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have seeped in. And we are all too aware of the horrible trade in people from poor countries who are being smuggled in to this country, not to mention terrorists who appear to be able to nip in with alarming ease.

We have to look to our border security to keep the unwanted out, be it smuggled cigarettes or people.