The cost of tobacco control
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 14:21 Forest Eireann's Smokers' Manifesto, published ahead of the Irish general election this coming Friday, attracted a fair bit of interest last week.
FE spokesman John Mallon was interviewed by several Irish radio stations, and the manifesto was reported in four national newspapers including two broadsheets, the Irish Times and Irish Examiner, and two tabloids, the Irish editions of the Sun and Daily Star.
There was also a substantial piece in the Cork Independent: Smokers are voters too.
When we wrote the manifesto I had forgotten that the outgoing Irish government not only introduced a tobacco display ban, it also banned the sale of ten-packs.
It is fairly clear that not only does banning ten-packs have no effect on smoking rates (youth or otherwise), it is actually counter-productive.
Writing on the Forest Eireann blog today, John explains how ten-packs enabled him to cut down from 40-a-day, while the subsequent ban on ten-packs merely encouraged him to use roll-ups instead. Not only has this saved him a small fortune, it has cost the Irish Exchequer thousands of euros.
No wonder the Irish economy is in such a mess.
Reader Comments (3)
You raise an interesting question - what is the actual cost of "tobacco control"? Peole ought to know how much they are spending on flagellating themselves.
"No wonder the Irish economy is in such a mess"?
No wonder half of Europe is in such a mess...half? What am I talking about? Practically all of Europe is in such a mess, and Spain is far from excused. Their economy is the pits, with nearlly 25% of the population unemplyed and house prices falling faster than an anvil from the top of the Empire State Building. Their biggest income used to come from agricuture, but over the past 20 to 30 years has been derived mainly from tourism. So what do their idiotoic, left wing bunch of clowns in Government do? They too, like their left-wing counterparts throughout Europe (and the States) impose a smoking ban>
What a jolly good wheeze eh chaps? This'll bring more tourists in, that's for sure....er...er...er.
Death Wish was a good movie, Death Wish II was OK, number 3 was pretty dire, and any consequent follow ups were not even worth mentioning, so why do countries like Spain and Ireland and all the rest of them, including ourselves, think we can make Death Wish - the Ultimate, and it will work? It will not, it is throwing our money down the drain!
...tobacco control policies should be amended so they “are fair for everyone, smokers and non-smokers alike”. I fail to see why this is so "wrong".
Thanks John Mallon.