AUS LEGAL 34 RE TOBACCO AND LEGALITIES
From: Martin Taylor (mtaylor@no-spam)
Subject: Re: Tobacco and legalities..
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 10:33:19 +1000


Rod Speed said....
RS> Because plenty that can kill is legal to sell.
RS> >> Yeah, I know it's all about money,
RS> RS> It aint.

It is all about money. Tobacco (and alcohol) excise is hefty. If the governments were serious about smoking, they'd ban it.

What pisses me off though, is the preferential treatment that alcohol gets, in terms of society acceptance. You can't advertise cigarettes at a motor sport event, but you can with alcohol.

(the governments and road authorities are always beating us about the head with driving, speeding and drinking).

Now, while smoking takes years to kill you, alcohol can have a fairly quick effect, such as drink driving. It also has other social issues such as domestic violence, workplace accidents and absenteeism,
hooliganism at sporting events, and the usual crap that you see in nightclubs, and afterwards outside of the pubs.

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From: Martin Taylor (mtaylor@no-spam)
Subject: Re: Tobacco and legalities..
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 16:33:15 +1000

Rod Speed said....
RS> Modern western govts have accepted the fact that just banning RS> smoking aint gunna work, and they have mostly with tobacco
Yes, I'm well aware of it. I'm merely commenting on the double standards that our society seems to embrace. One drug's OK, while another's not,
yet both have negative benefits to society.

I'm of the view that if cigarettes are a legal product, then they should be afforded the same status as alcohol. While some might find smoking offensive, it ain't anywhere near as bad as drinking. Particularly those who binge drink, which is becoming a significant problem, particularly with under aged kids.

RS> Alcohol used in moderation aint gunna kill you, particularly RS> if you obey the drink driving laws. In fact moderate RS> alcohol use is actually benefitial to your health.

Yeah, for sure. But the abuse of alchohol, whether in terms of an alcoholic, or kids out on a bender, or whatever, presents a far greater problem than smoking does. While smoking may expose you to greater risk of heart disease and cancer (as does an unhealthy diet, but we don't enforce good eating habits, do we?) it doesn't cause the social problems that grog can, and does present.

To that end, if we decide to ban cigarette advertising, then the same should be done with alcohol advertising.

RS> And only some types of alcohol consumption pay RS> excise, home brewing and winemaking doesnt.

Which is a minority thing, anyway. Not much revenue to be gained there,
other than the usual GST and other associated taxes that may be levied on the products at wholesale and retail level.

>> You can't advertise cigarettes at a motor >> sport event, but you can with alcohol.

RS> Because moderate alcohol use cant kill you, stupid.

Not talking about moderate alcohol use, stupid. Talking about alcohol abuse.

RS> And even someone as stupid as you should have noticed RS> that the main penalty for being caught driving over the limit
Dickhead, not discussing that.

Rest of your irrelevant rubbish flushed...

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