How do you ban smoking?

We haven’t been able to ban illicit drugs. Far from it.

We can’t phase out smoking. Any efforts to do so would just drive it underground. It would still be out there, along with all the other illegal addictive substances. And it would be a huge operation, no matter how much the authorities tried to clamp down on it.

It would turn a very large number of people who are presumably currently law-abiding citizens into law-breakers if they purchased tobacco. It would place them before the courts, impose large fines, perhaps put some in prison, give them criminal records and maybe seriously affect their jobs and careers.

Hey, I’d love to see tobacco eradicated from our society. But let’s look at the practicalities.

It can’t be done.

Suse, I did think it was strange, your post, I thought this is not the normal, Suseonline, I must apologize for not realising you were being sarcastic. Yes what or who is the antithesis of the "DOGOODER" must be the "DOBADDER" those who castigate others as being a "Dogooder" must be from the other camp the "Dobadders" or somewhere in between.

"I reckon alcohol & other drugs kill more than tobacco ever did."
"I reckom arsenic $ other poisons kill more than strychnine ever did."
The justification for taking a dose of strychnine.

"However I will go along with your ban, but only if alcohol is banned at the same time."

"I will agree to ban the use of the guillotine, which I oppose, but only if you will agree to the banning of the axe. Until then we'll continue to chop off more heads.

What a nonsensical line of argument Hasbeen.

In this book, I will show that the case against smoking based on bogus statistics and downright lies. I will show that the case for a link between smoking and disease has not been proven and that, indeed, the international statistics suggest that there's no link at all.
http://www.lcolby.com/b-chap1.htm

Furthermore, I will show that the government estimates of "smoking-related deaths" are simply fraudulent and that the recent EPA report, purporting to show a risk to non-smokers from second hand smoke was predicated on manufactured "evidence" which some of the EPA's own scientists found appalling.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=YAldAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=FRAUD+Surgeon+General%E2%80%99s+Report+on+Smoking&source=bl&ots=1jVvxcP0Tf&sig=L5RGZyrEUIFnIQ_zXL4D_jJHnv4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6rfbUoCALciwkgXo-oHQAg&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=FRAUD%20Surgeon%20General%E2%80%99s%20Report%20on%20Smoking&f=false

I am reminded of a skit I heard on the radio;
Sir Walter Raleigh rings up Sir Francis Drake from America;
Francis, they have this great thing here, you roll up this leaf and put
it in your mouth and then put a match to the end;

Sir Francis, "you do what ?" "You set fire to it !"

And on it goes in that vein. A very funny recording.
I am in favour of an immediate ban.
Actually, it is not so hard to implement.
In a job I was doing I used to go to WD HO Wills plant and each shipment comes in in multiple 40 ft containers.
Bit hard to smuggle them in, and they smell to high heaven.
The leaf is very big and would use up a lot more room in a pot house
judging by what I have seen on police raids on TV.
Anyway they could not smuggle enough in to affect the countries health.

Whenever anything becomes a health risk they rush around the chemists
supermarkets etc etc pulling them all off the shelves.
They do this for things that are a lot less risky than cigarettes.

The tax I read is less than the cost of smoking illness.
So why not ban it ?
We have a fitness conscience PM, so now is the time.

THE highest cause of lung cancer is diesel particulate
[wood smoke comes number TWO
theN Asbestosis...[then tobacco]

lest we forget ASBESTOSIS WAS GOING TO BANKRUPT INSURANCE
SO A Convenient scape goat WAS Manufactured[our asbestos didnt kill you/your smoking did[ITS CLever lawyer spin/REDIRECTED THE ASBESTOS/THREAT..TO BIG MONEY.

.http://www.google.com.au/search?q=DIESAL+micro+PARTICULATE..cancer+

BUT HATING..is so profitable for govt revenue raising

also please compare the rates for cancer..of smokers versus non smokers

THE SAME RATE*..ie smoking isnt a factor..BUT I explained these facts and more in so many of these hate smokers and execute them

its estimated that smoking TAKES Six years of our lives
if it was half..i still WOULDNT Give a stuff..go hound boozers..their filling up 75 %..of hospital sevice

pick on drunks if you dare
blame drinking blame TRANSFATS..BLAME THE CHEMICALS THEY put into tobacco..to make it burn[then the other chemicals govt mandated to then add in to not make it burn..

buT WHO DOES ..CARE TO do the research
lawyers and govt and science colluded..to revenue raise
[plus the hippies scarred the straights..into declaring war on smokers

bah..you all make me suffer for yOUR OWN MINDLESS FEAR MONGERING
WHAT ABOUT passive drinking..as you inhale the booze fumes in the pub

how about these yOUNG KIDS..And their ladY ATTRACTANT STINK
..[AND OLD LADIES WITH THEIR perfume stink

quotes from
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=4307&page=0

[quoted from govt speeches]

ALP
Chris Hayes

""Leaving aside the emotional costs..of that toll,

...*the social costs...*
are estimated at $31.5 billion...""
[lost labour/income tax guestimates]
and plenty of other lard/spin

[social costs..
[attributable guesstimates]..not REAL COST]

this new law
raises 5 billion

ALP
Melissa Parke

""has a double purpose:it adds a significant price disincentive to the purchase of tobacco products,and it will generate an additional $5 billion..over four years to be directly invested*..in better health and hospitals""

yet costs
669 million

smoking..""was responsible for 753,618 hospital bed days,
and for $669 million in hospital costs..*.""

the spin dont add up

laurie furgessing[alp]
smoking responsable...for
""...*20 per cent..!
of all cancer-deaths..in general""

Excessive taxes. How much more will they take from you?
http://www.ideservetobeheard.com.au/home.php

The government has already hit you with a 25% tax increase on your cigarettes in April 2010. How much more will they take from you? It’s time to get involved, speak up and say enough is enough.

Did you know?

As of February 2011, about two thirds of the $18.25 recommended retail price for Peter Jackson 30s is government tax.

Less than 1% of tobacco excise taxes is put towards preventative health measures such as anti-smoking campaigns. (Source: National Preventative Health Taskforce, Technical Report 2, 2008)

The recommended retail price of Peter Jackson 30s has increased by 109% since 2000.

The real price of cigarettes has tripled since 1983. (Source: National Preventative Health Taskforce, Technical Report 2, 2008)

Now’s your chance to write to your local MP to say NO to more tobacco tax increases, NO to more bans on smoking outdoors and NO to plain packaging of cigarettes.

Click here to send a letter to your local MP.
http://www.ideservetobeheard.com.au/getInvolved/writeLegislator.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Costs