Anti-smoking groups rioting in the streets over delay in removing counter displays

Banning tobacco wouldn’t work anyway it would only drive it underground. It is hard to criminilise something that has been legal for eons unless you give it an end date – say tobacco will be banned from the year 2030 (just to pluck a figure).

By then all the old smokers will be gone and hopefully the uptake will be less. Still not sure that would work. No easy answers on this one and it is a subject that ruffles the feathers on both sides.

I have never smoked but I am glad that as an asthmatic I no longer have to inhale someonelse’s smoke in a restaurant or on a plane or bus. It was unbearable.

Sammy said :

what’s the next target for the do-gooders?

I dunno, I guess they’ll just have to move down to the next entry in the “Enormous cost to the public purse” list.

I do so love it when a coercive Government program becomes a justification for another coercive Government program.

…3 post nutbag.

Sammy said :

Firstly, I agree that cigarettes should not be on display. If they’re on display, then they’re being promoted. That’s what a display is.

Are you saying that cigarettes should not be on display because that is the promotion of cigarettes, and that the promotion of cigarettes should be banned?

If so, why should the promotion of cigarettes be banned?

pelican said :

If we are to get serious about smoking then this is a good idea but no idea is good in isolation if the goal is to reduce the numbers of young people taking up smoking.

As for rights – they are nothing more than human constructs which change from time to time with cultural and social expectations. Nothing new or wrong in this. Locke was not the final word on rights. 🙂

Ahh yes, I always forget I can’t be anything but super super literal on RiotACT.

I was attempting not to claim that Locke was the last word on rights (he was just the right one haha), I was merely attempting to highlight the fact that these days it appears people claim anything they want to be a ‘right’ without putting any philosophical thought behind it.

ban tobacco.

want me to quit and save the public a truckload of health money?

ban tobacco.

empty the coffers of revenue for the govt?

ban tobacco.

never going to happen?

ban tobacco.

So many laws on what is already a legal drug.

If it did not create such revenue from excise it would have been outlawed eons ago.

Smokers are the modern day leper – either fully legalise tobacco and all associons with tobacco or outlaw it completely.

Its stupid to legalise something with so many pre-requisitive conditions.

For the record – yes I am a smoker – but more social than regular, mostly on weekends with beer in hand… but I also ride some 120km a week so I do care about my health – just stuck in the vicehold that = beer and cigarettes. Can go a whole week or 2 without – then soon as I have a yes just one beer, its all over.

what’s the next target for the do-gooders?

I dunno, I guess they’ll just have to move down to the next entry in the “Enormous cost to the public purse” list.

Firstly, I agree that cigarettes should not be on display. If they’re on display, then they’re being promoted. That’s what a display is.

However, Ross Solly this morning commented that it really couldn’t be that hard for shop owners to just shove the cigarettes under the counter, as if every small supermarket has a massive amount of free space under their counters that was left there ‘just in case’.

I’d say it’s pretty easily achievable for the majority of larger supermarkets though. My local Coles already keeps their cigarettes under the counter at the service counter, as I believe almost all large chains do.

And once cigarettes are finally gone for good – what’s the next target for the do-gooders?

If we are to get serious about smoking then this is a good idea but no idea is good in isolation if the goal is to reduce the numbers of young people taking up smoking.

As for rights – they are nothing more than human constructs which change from time to time with cultural and social expectations. Nothing new or wrong in this. Locke was not the final word on rights. 🙂

“They really should be standing up for the health rights of children to not have to be exposed to tobacco advertising in the form of displays every time they go in and out of a shop.”

…You know I didn’t come across that particular right when I was reading Locke. I musn’t have been paying attention.

I’d put up some platitudes about how we are heading towards a nanny state but…I’m pretty sure we are already there anyway.