BACK when smoking was deemed acceptable, I remember pretending to puff away on sweet cigarettes. These fag-shaped look-a-likes were marketed to children as confectionery and were playground favourites.

They had no carcinogenic ingredients of course, being stuffed instead with sugar and gelatine. Nevertheless they allowed for much underage posing with pretend ciggies. You just couldn’t do a decent impression of Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins or Hannibal from the A-Team without one.

They were chalky, sweet and the better brands even had the end painted red to look lit. Some were soft and chewy and nicer to eat, but probably stale now that I think of it.

These fake smokes even came in a cardboard box that was meant to look like an actual cigarette pack. They came branded from everything from World Cup football to the latest James Bond film.

Another added treat was a card inside that you could send off for an album to stick them in.

Tobacciana confectioneries for kids were rife in the 80s. There were also chewy brown, chocolate sticks, which I used to pretend, were "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet." Another dubious product was Spanish Gold, which appeared to be sweet tobacco but was in fact stringy pieces of coconut.

It even came in a handy, little treasure chest. It makes me wonder what else was available then?

I’ll have a liquorice pipe and a small bag of candy snuff, please shopkeeper. Still, I don’t recall parents or teachers being too worried by the morality of it all and I’ve not developed a 40-a day habit since.