BBC News - Australia is the first country to ban branding on cigarette packets

I don't want to get in to the health issues with this one folks but to look at it from another angle. Two question's come to mind..

1. Is this a form of a Nanny State I know what is best for you?

2. Will it have a big impact on cutting the numbers of smokers?

My answers..
1. Yes it is. People know the facts and its down to them the individual to choose to smoke or not.

2. There is nothing to stop the "feel guilty factor" smoker removing there cigarette's from the box to a cigarette metal case. And for those who don't as the Australian smoker said "I don't give a dam". I don't think it will have a major impact to the numbers of smokers.

__________________
Rimmer..."Go to Red Alert".
Kryten..."Are you sure sir, it dose mean changing the light bulb".

I think it was inevitable anyway. I don't think it will have any great influence on cutting the number of smokers presently however it may go some way in preventing people starting the habit.

What gets me is the hypocrisy of the increasingly anti-smoking message - make smokers into pariahs, tell them they are evil and nasty and shunt them into ever smaller corners to indulge in their disgusting habit - yet they happily rake in all that tax and duty from them, in fact they are bricking it because if they really did manage to succeed in stopping everyone from smoking there would be a massive hole left in the tax revenue.

__________________
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend - but chocolate is a woman's!

It's surprising that the no norts in this country didn't get in there first.I used to smoke many moons ago it had nothing to do with how pretty or plain the packaging was.

__________________
If you are going through hell,keep going.

Looks like a business opportunity to me. Produce cigarette cases that are replicas of the well known packets. They'd sell like hot cakes.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
I cant take the anti smoking fascists seriously until they start applying the same rigours to a far more dangerous habit, which has much worse and far more lasting social consequences: binge drinking.

Hang on a minute, I binge drink. I go to a Rugby club dinner and get majestically ******. In that state I am taken home in a taxi and in the morning suffer the vengeance of hell. But I never abuse anyone. I never fight.

There is something deeper in the violence begat by booze. It is as though alcohol releases the darker emotions, fuels the hatreds, fires the intolerance.

The Governments answer is, as usual, the great sledgehammer. Increase the price. It gets them more taxes. But that has no effect on the use of illegal drugs. The price on the street may be astronomic, but users will always find the money, by robbing the rest of us.

I am not certain that I see the link between illegal drugs and alcohol?

__________________
Between dreams and reality, a shadow sometimes falls.

The cruellest lies are often told in silence. (R.L. Stevenson)

The Pink Pantheress

Good comparison, , but I am not sure there is a logical answer in either case.

__________________
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

With regard to the original post - I cannot see that wrapping cigarettes in plain packaging is going to stop people smoking. In fact it might even make them seem more interesting to some. Selling copies of 'Lady Chatterley' in plain covers did wonders for the book sales !

__________________
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.