What the Sunday papers said

Alcohol and tobacco could be ranked as more dangerous than the class-A drug ecstasy if the government adopts recommendations to reclassify drugs according to the harm they do. Alcohol should be moved up the danger scale, according to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce because of its links to violence and car accidents. - Sunday Times​

A new TV advertising campaign which will feature ordinary people arguing for and against their right to smoke has been devised by the government as part of its effort to win hearts and minds over the smoking bands being introduced in England and Wales this year. - Observer​

Health chiefs are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds ordering churches to put up 'no smoking' signs. A spokesman for Church House, which governs 16,000 churches in England, said there shouldn't be a problem because no-one smokes in churches anyway and there were concerns the signage could be intrusive. - Mail On Sunday​

Murders and psychopaths are planning legal action against a smoking ban at their top security hospital. Patients at Rampton, in Nottinghamshire, claim their human rights have been violated by the move to ban smoking in the hospital's buildings. - Sunday Mirror​

Beer drinkers are to face a triple whammy which could send the price of a pint soaring by 15p in the coming months. Brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle is set to increase wholesale prices by 3.9 per cent tomorrow (Monday), blaming rising raw material costs; then landlords are to add around 4p a pint to cover rising utility bills and wage costs, and then Chancellor Gordon Brown will slap yet more taxes on booze in his forthcoming Budget. - Sunday Express​

Punch Taverns is expected to move into the UK's largest stock market index this week. Wednesday sees the quarterly reshuffle of companies and the country's largest pub operator is believed to be lined up for promotion to the FTSE 100. - Independent On Sunday​

Talks between Whitbread and property tycoon Simon Halabi over the former's David Lloyd health clubs broke down last week after neither side could agree on what the business is worth. Halabi, who owns gym chain Esporta, is believed to be willing to pay £800m, with Whitbread looking for £900m. Sources suggest it unlikely the two will return to the negotiating table. - Sunday Times​

Cobra Beer, founded by Lord Karan Bilimoria in 1989, has come 84th in the Sunday Times' annual 'Best Small & Medium Sized companies to work for' survey. - Sunday Times​