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Monday, July 23, 2012

Smokers have (cough, cough) voices too (cough, cough)



So the Tobacco industry have launched a website where they claim their customers 'option counts'.

Really?

These voices don't count because they're all bloody addicts. Who cares what an addict has to say on their drug being restricted? What possible insight are gained from listening to addicts bitch about not getting their hit?

These are not 'customers' or 'consumers' having 'opinions' they are addicts being manipulated by their dealer into whining about restrictions on the dealers profit margins.

This has all the credibility of America's pro gun culture in the wake of a massacre.


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3 Comments:

At 23/7/12 6:53 pm, Blogger Nitrium said...

This has all the credibility of America's pro gun culture in the wake of a massacre.
Errr, What??? That is just about the weirdest comparison to tobacco I've ever read, and I've read plenty. Are guns addictive are they? I don't get this at all. Guns (the right to own on) are an unalienable RIGHT in the US as guaranteed by the Second Amendment. If they want to change this then they need to make a NEW amendment to revoke the old one. It's as simple as that (and the last 200 years have shown a very long history of unwillingness to do so). The US gun culture has literally NOTHING to do with tobacco in NZ.

 
At 25/7/12 7:06 pm, Blogger Caleb said...

Not everyone who enjoys smoking tobacco is addicted. I choose to smoke sometimes, I'm not a passive victim of greedy companies with no agency of my own.

Tobacco is already taxed more than what it costs society, it's already barely advertised at all and with huge amounts of education about its harms and help to quit. All that is good I think. But it's enough. Any further measures are simply irrational smoking-haters having a tantrum when despite all the information and disincentives people still choose to smoke (or choose to start the behaviour that will lead to them being addicted which is not totally a choice, bla bla bla).

We'd be better off targeting other unhealthy behavious like fast food or alcohol or TV or fizzy drink or computers etc, and the companies that market them... There is (more than) enough already done against tobacco, the fact that many people still smoke isn't because there's not enough done. Tax is already extremely high, further restrictions on advertising won't make much difference at this stage and prohibition isn't going to solve anything. There is also a lot of support for people who want to quit, and numbers of smokers are reducing already.

There are many reasons people still smoke despite all this, but one of them is that people like it, because, newsflash, much like pies and beer it tastes good and makes you feel good.

 
At 25/7/12 7:06 pm, Blogger Caleb said...

Not everyone who enjoys smoking tobacco is addicted. I choose to smoke sometimes, I'm not a passive victim of greedy companies with no agency of my own.

Tobacco is already taxed more than what it costs society, it's already barely advertised at all and with huge amounts of education about its harms and help to quit. All that is good I think. But it's enough. Any further measures are simply irrational smoking-haters having a tantrum when despite all the information and disincentives people still choose to smoke (or choose to start the behaviour that will lead to them being addicted which is not totally a choice, bla bla bla).

We'd be better off targeting other unhealthy behavious like fast food or alcohol or TV or fizzy drink or computers etc, and the companies that market them... There is (more than) enough already done against tobacco, the fact that many people still smoke isn't because there's not enough done. Tax is already extremely high, further restrictions on advertising won't make much difference at this stage and prohibition isn't going to solve anything. There is also a lot of support for people who want to quit, and numbers of smokers are reducing already.

There are many reasons people still smoke despite all this, but one of them is that people like it, because, newsflash, much like pies and beer it tastes good and makes you feel good.

 

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