Sunday - November 21, 2010

do gooders in a nanny state. it’s for the kiddies

As an ex smoker (Luckies unfiltered, 2pks a day min.) I’m all for trying to educate young ppl about the dangers before they get hooked.  But I remember my young days and when I began at age 13.  The packaging had less to do with my starting then the fact that I grew up in an environment where everyone smoked and my mother did also.  Packing and advertising got me to try or to change brands after I was a confirmed addict. Not before.  And I’ve lost ppl close to me, due to smoking.  But if you’re gonna hide and or ban things that are fatal to people, then where will the line be drawn?  I believe the tobacco industry and smokers in general are just easy targets for health Nazis.  How about the labels on alcohol? How about some serious restrictions on booze? Why not?  Drink drivers kill more innocent people then drivers smoking. I don’t know the figures but surely alcohol has ruined as many lives as tobacco.  But that industry is not so easy a target.
And the idea that raising prices on either product will cure the problem is utter nonsense. 

We unhappily live in a nanny state world where strangers with the loudest voices hold sway and can alter personal behavior.  Now that might not be a bad thing if it had any effect whatever on things like crime, child abuse, drunks at the wheel, drugs and drug pushers.  btw, How long has the “War on Drugs” been going on?
Is MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) any closer to a solution of that damnable problem? 

The idea (USA) of graphic photos on a cigarette pack is loathsome and stupid as well. It’s a legal product and if the state feels that strongly about it, then ban the product. See how far ya get.  No less stupid is this latest from the mommy country.

Cigarette packs wrapped in brown paper so as to make them less attractive to the young.
So tell me please.  Just how is crack and horse and mary jane wrapped?  And how come so many young become attracted to junk and decide to, “give it a try.”
Certainly can’t be the wrapper.

Not long ago in a conversation with an ivory tower prof and writer of white papers for govts., the subject of evil tobacco came up. I have no idea why or how. But he came up with the same old line I’ve read or heard a hundred times.  Smiling as though he’d just scored an original point, he informed us that he’d interviewed drug addicts and they told him that quitting heroin was easier then quitting cigarettes. Which shows he said, just how much more dangerous cigs are then heroin.
Of course, he’d never been a smoker himself.  But he bought the danger mantra like a fool.  I couldn’t believe this was a guy with an IQ off the scale, a person paid large sums for research and writing speeches for major politicians and white papers. 

OK so cigarettes are more dangerous. Right.
How many addicted smokers do you know off hand that rob , lie cheat and steal and even at times, kill for that smoke behind the barn?
How many burglaries or muggings are made to support a cigarette habit?
Jerk.

Cigarettes ‘may be sold in plain brown packs so they are less attractive to children’

Tobacco companies could be forced to sell cigarettes in plain packaging in an attempt to deter youngsters from taking up smoking.

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor

Ministers are considering switching all brand packs to a standard colour so brightly coloured packages will not lure prospective smokers from a young age.

Retailers will be initially be asked to cover up their displays of cigarettes so that children are not attracted by the packaging, but ministers want to examine the use of plain packets as well.

Ministers want to see if changing cigarette packet appearance could deter children from taking up smoking and support people who are trying to quit.

Plain packs would just show only basic information and health and picture warnings in order to break the ‘brand recognition’ and use of distinctive colours.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “We have to try new approaches and take decisions to benefit the population.

“That’s why I want to look at the idea of plain packaging. The evidence is clear that packaging helps to recruit smokers, so it makes sense to consider having less attractive packaging.

“It’s wrong that children are being attracted to smoke by glitzy designs on packets.

“We would prefer it if people did not smoke and adults will still be able to buy cigarettes, but children should be protected from the start.

“The levels of poor health and deaths from smoking are still far too high, and the cost to the NHS and the economy is vast. That money could be used to educate our children and treat cancer.

“We will shortly set out a radical new approach to public health in a White Paper. We want to go further and faster in improving the health of the nation based firmly on doing what the evidence tells us works.”

FOR THE REST

The levels of poor health and death from beatings and stabbings on the streets and in the home is also far too high.  But the papers report, unless they’re all telling lies, that violent criminals are out there having been freed early because the prisons are crowded.  The papers also report that a recent study claims that fully 51% of teen offenders re-offend and that prisons seem to have failed with them.  Indeed, many say jail is where they first experience three meals and a warm bed every day.  I wonder if they’re all smokers too.

Posted by peiper     on 11/21/2010 at 01:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Nanny State •  
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