Another win for anti tobacco. The crop that made America is still under fire and in Australia they may have struck a death blow. On Wednesday, Australia’s highest court upheld one of the harshest laws yet against tobacco companies. All distinctive colors, brand designs and logos are to be removed from cigarettes. But thats not all folks! To replace the designs will be graphic images of cancer-riddled mouths, blinded eyeballs and sickly children. (hopefully a flaccid weener too)
Wow. WOW.
Is anyone not aware that cigarettes can be harmful to your health? Anyone? Do cigarette smokers get forced to smoke at gun point? Its one thing to force smokers to go away from non smokers and avoid second hand smoke and the shitty smell. Its another thing to continually slam an individuals rights to do what they fucking want to. Now an individual that wants a smoke break from the shit job that he fights through every day gets to stare at a tar and cancer covered lung taken out of a body after autopsy before they light that little bit of relaxation and peace.
We need government, human beings need to be governed or it would be violent rapey chaos… but when government comes in and says we can’t do something like smoke a cigarette, they are over stepping their bounds. Attorney General Nicola Roxon and Health Minister Tanya Plibersek justify this action by saying “This is a victory for all those families who have lost someone to a tobacco-related illness. For anyone who has ever lost someone, this is for you.” THE SMOKERS CHOSE TO SMOKE!! For christ sakes, the new packs will make smoking as unglamorous as possible, sure… but really? Pictures of sickly children on a pack of cigarettes?
Government has the right and the obligation to search out the health issues with cigarettes and put out the truth about the health dangers like cancer and birth defects etc. Especially back in the 50′s and 60′s when cigarette companies literally put out commercials from “doctors” saying smoking was good for you. False claims and advertising directly to children is definitely something that needs to be regulated, but the Australian government is effectively seizing the property of a company and acquiring a platform to put forward their own message of anti smoking. This is beyond the boundaries of a government body to seize a companies protected copyrights and product and repackage it with its own labels, let alone labels of graphic health issues.
Smoking is something people want to do for a little buzz, or help relaxing, or even after some wild sex. Doing this to companies and pushing these regulations will only do more harm than good. Counterfeit cigarettes on the black market will explode after this. Government regulated plain packaging is going to give counterfeiters a fucking template on how to make a fake cigarette box.
What do you think of the decision to put these images on cigarettes?
