4 January 2011

The bell tolls for tobacconists

| johnboy
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Katy Gallagher’s war on anyone involved with tobacco continues. This morning she’s reminding tobacconists that they need to cover up their wares from midnight:

ACT Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher MLA, today reminded all specialist tobacconists to comply with the out of sight display requirements that specify they must remove their tobacco displays from 1 January 2011.

“This is an important step in protecting the health of the Canberra community, and will assist in achieving the goal of improved public health,” said the Minister.

I feel safer already! Do you feel safer?

Cracking down on the display of tobacco products

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@ JustThinking – I’ve already seen reports that they’re thinking about bringing in some of the ‘shock’ ads for obesity, aimed at fast food. The ads, I think already on air in the US, show people drinking glasses of congealed fat and other fairly disgusting matter.

Can you imagine the uproar, if McDonalds, KFC, Hungry Jacks etc had to lable every one of their containers with a health warning similar to that plastered on cigarette packets these days?

Back on topic though, It surprises me to no end that a tobacconist (a shop specifically created to sell tobacco products) has to cover up it’s wares, but they’re still legal to sell. I remember when supermarkets other grocery stores had to cover up their tobacco supplies and I understood – it’s because people didn’t go there specifically to buy tobacco and shouldn’t be subject to the temptation (the young, or recent quitters, I guess). But why a tobacconist?

This is such an annoying part of the legislation. I like to be able to see what the prices for different brands are, whether a carton is significantly cheaper etc. Now you feel like a nuisance even asking.

Would a printed list of brand prices/carton prices on the counter be illegal? I guess it will be soon, even if it isn’t now….

I wonder what Australia will be like it 15 years. What new things won’t we be allowed to do.

+1 Hells_Bells74, If Katie G wants to do this then it should be the same across board for Alcohol and Tobacco.

JustThinking6:05 pm 02 Jan 11

Isn’t obesity in Australia starting to outdo cigarette related issues??
What is next??
Signs on fastfood/takeaway doors or do they just hide the food???

I have to agree with Hells Bells…
With the laws in place smokers are only killing themselves (or their close friends and family I guess)
Drunks are still harming/killing heaps of people.
COVER the alcohol….makes them guess what they want to drink,,,,better still,,,,stop it being served in public places while they have their car parked outside.

Isn’t Katy a bit late??
Think she should worry more about the Mental Health of Canberra…

Hells_Bells7410:06 am 02 Jan 11

The only time I ever saw Stanhope in public was in the food court of the Belconnen Mall, wheeling through a Dan Murphy’s trolley, fully stocked with cases of grog (no plastic bags or cartons of smokes). On his own too.

That’d be why alcohol is still a protected species.

*TFIC*

sigh, i actually feel sorry for the smokers. OTT imo

Why don’t we just sue the government for allowing tobaccoo to be sold in the first place!

Morgan@7 +1.

Mr Stanhope, you and your miserable government have turned about 15% of the ACT population into pariahs. You didn’t need to do it this way. The vast majority of social issues you feel the need to deal with are given the jackboot treatment.

Is it really necessary to fine 15/16 year old shop assistants $2000 or so for giving out a plastic bag?

Have you driven over the border from NSW and read the billboard signs? The message is far less than ‘Welcome to Canberra’, more like ‘The AFP are watching you, and waiting for you to speed or commit a crime, and we will have you’.

We are treated as lemmings under the road rules. We are unable to turn right unless authorised by big brother. Roads are upgraded and the speed limit reduced.

We are forcefed the ‘arts’. Do we really have to have our aboriginal heritage noted on 5 metre signs? Do we not have better uses for the arboretum millions? Do we need painted rock piles and helicopter crashes beside our roads?

Could you not recognise that there are motoring enthusiasts in this town, and the Summernats is not a panacea to this group? Hint, a lot of us are a bit older than the very visible Rushhour members.

You very publicly took responsibility for the results of the 2003 fires, and then used every trick in the book, plus a huge amount of ratepayer money, to absolve yourself and every associated beaurocrat from any responsibility.

Sir: You and your almost incompetent rabble need to stand back and take a look at yourselves. Dictating your ideals to the community is causing aggravation and grief. You pretend to speak to the community, but you are deaf to the replies. Your ‘team’ have become expert at covering their arses, and deflecting criticism.

Stop trying to run Canberra society in your own narrow, misguided vision.

+1 Mr Evil, these rules lately are definitely reawakening my subversive tendencies (which have been dormant since being in Australia) Next we will be told who we can marry – oh wait… If smoking wasn’t so ruddy awful I would love to have a ciggie outside O’Malleys at three in the morning, just for fun.

Typical socialists, taking away anything that makes the working man likes. I will never vote labour again.

They came first for the Smokers,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Smoker.

Then they came for the plastic bag,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a plastic bag.

Then they came for the fire crackers,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a bogan.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

ACT Labor are Puritans “That terribly awful feeling that someone, somewhere, might be having a good time”

Comrade Stanhope, tear down this wall.

Time for Miss Katy to start restricting the advertising of alcohol. After all, I believe this causes as much, if not more damage to the general population than tobacco does.

I’m actually thinking of taking up smoking now – it just seems so wicked and illicit these days!

And as to chocolates – I reckon that’ll be the next thing the Govt will order to be placed in plain wrappers and locked behind the counter.

Hasnt this been the case for at least a year? Isnt that why every shop put covers over their cigarette displays? Isnt that why it now takes 5min for the staff to find your pack, because they can no longer just look and see, but have to go searching.

xperfect_darkx12:08 pm 31 Dec 10

I kinda doubt covering them up is doing anything really. Cigarettes aren’t like chocolates, people don’t just see them and go ooohh, yes they do look delicious, I think I will have some of those.
Having them covered up has had no effect on people buying cigarettes (as someone who works in a small grocery with cigarettes behind the counter). The same people who used to buy cigarettes, still buy them, and I really haven’t seen any decrease in the numbers of people buying them at all.
All the covers do is annoy the people working there, they fall off all the time, they make it harder to find the correct cigarettes, and to train new people on where they are.

How about a “is another small step in the right direction” option?

WhyTheLongFace10:43 am 31 Dec 10

Pretty sure this is already the case in other states.

ACT just catching up, not leading the way.

Anything that makes it easier for addicts to quit is a good thing. Out of sight, out of mind.

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