The road to prohibition
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 10:00 The anti-tobacco lobby is developing plans to prohibit smoking altogether, writes Chris Snowdon:
A recent paper in BMC Public Health has suggested ways of going about it. The study – entitled ‘Daring to Dream’ – puts forward three different methods by which prohibition could be introduced ...
1. Incrementally reduce the number of cigarettes produced each year until it reaches zero in ten to 15 years.
2. Make a law to force the tobacco industry to reduce smoking prevalence (punishable by fines).
3. Change the law to make it easier for individuals to sue the tobacco industry, thus bankrupting it.
He adds:
Notice that all these strategies embrace the prohibitionists’ fallacy of assuming that industry is the root of the problem. It is a constant trait of those endowed with the certainty of the zealot to believe that people desire products because industry produces them, and not – as is the reality – that industry supplies products because people desire them.
Full article: Planning for Prohibition (The Free Society)
Reader Comments (3)
The same warped mentality as the types who say violent video games or film promote violence.
Does art follow society or does society follow art.
I suspect the former ,art mimics society.
Not to mention this old chestnut but still a sound argument against banning altogether.
Illegal drugs banned yet still readily available.
I do wish these sad people would get a brain.
Then again it's not about health at all is it ?
Me, I think the prohibitionists party is about to come to an end.
I sense the first tremors of a society in political change, hopefully not upheaval.
In ten years time we would not recognise the society that will emerge.
I suspect we will see less big government and more localisation.
Back to Tobacco control,they need that big government to operate ,without that they are finished.
I've been saying for ages the end game is eradication of the product and criminalisation of the consumer. We will be forced into the same labelled pot as drug addicts.
See you in prison folks - probably within the next five years.
While the authors are premature in hoping it ill happen inside 10 years, the signs might be there by then. In the meantime as the black market will get a hold, we will have to look to class A drug consumption which way it will go. The bottom line is that responsible tobacco companies make their product to a quality level, I do not see that illegal manufacturers will take that level of care.
About 3% of the UK population take class A drugs and are responsible for 66% of ALL UK crime and drugs are the root cause of 50% of the prison population. When 28% of the population are criminalised I have no idea where it will go, however a quote from JD Rockerfeller may suffice as I never get tired of quoting a man who was tee total and supported Prohibition.
"..a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before."