19 July 2011

Cigarette spies need paying

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times has the intriguing news that the Office of Regulatory Services has been unable to recruit teenagers willing to try and buy smokes to test retailers’ compliance.

Possibly the leading cause of this failure is expecting the kids to work for free.

They’re now updating procedures to allow “rewards” to be paid to the young spies.

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ImagineThat said :

My guess is this article being published in the paper will have the same cautionary effect ….

wait what? Why wouldn’t they just make a press release along the lines of “we have organised some young teens to ask for ciggis” instead of “we can’t run stings because the kids won’t do it for free”

My guess is this article being published in the paper will have the same cautionary effect as would the publicity surrounding a few retailers being caught selling illegally to underage chimneys. The end result will save them a couple of bucks and have the same net effect, without any entrapment or deceit.

Entrapment.

The truth is that this agency is starved of funds for enforcement so they can’t afford to pay the under- age stooges anyhow.

Wait, so they want them to work for free? AHAHAHHAHAHAAHA

as if any kid is going to make a fool of themselves doing that. And the types they want (non smokers) will stick out when they enter the shop, and everyone will know they’re “undercover”

What will they reward them with? Winnie Blues?

So they’re recruitment child labours, with no pay, with the risk of tarnishing their own reputation and being on the receiving end of verbal or physical abuse from the shop keepers…

Oh I get it, it’s a JOKE! Nice one Office of Regulatory Services, you almost had me there for a moment.

I have never seen an under age buy cigarettes, but I sure have have seen lots of “older kids” come out of the supermarket or grog shop and hand over the smokes and grog.

I suspect the “kids shall not buy smokes” law is an umbrella for the government so the pollies can puff up their chest and boast that “we have laws that stop kids from buying smokes”

Yet another detachment of the bureaucracy from reality.

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