Re: Aus Federal Politics thread (VI)

[JGK]

It's not about infringing on the rights of those who choose to continue. They will always continue to smoke - plain packaging, ban on advertising, smoke free zones not withstanding. It is about stopping new people from smoking.

[Big Dog]

It's not about infringing on the rights of those who choose to continue. They will always continue to smoke - plain packaging, ban on advertising, smoke free zones not withstanding. It is about stopping new people from smoking.

Right...like plain packaging is going to stop them.
Most take it up because of peer pressure, not because of fancy packaging.

[taipan]

It's not about infringing on the rights of those who choose to continue. They will always continue to smoke - plain packaging, ban on advertising, smoke free zones not withstanding. It is about stopping new people from smoking.

Right...like plain packaging is going to stop them.
Most take it up because of peer pressure, not because of fancy packaging.

Ban the peers

[Big Dog]

Sorry. It doesn't matter which side of politics you are on. When it comes to tobacco they are all a pack of hypocritical qunts.

[taipan]

I wish they would ban smoking totally. I would be far better off. The qunts that don't smoke would have to pick up the drop in tax revenues.

[lardbucket]

There should be a gradual increase of tax on all tobacco products; make them less and less affordable ... make them more and more expensive. Fines on retailers who sell to minors should also be escalated, and enforced, so that they are a real deterrent. Smokers who have been smoking for more than ten years should be offered a tobacco addict card and as part of a controlled stop-smoking programme they should be supplied with patches AND/or free high nicotine cigarettes in a cigarette exchange system - akin to the needle exchange system - so that they are given every chance to quit.

Not sure about banning smoking totally ... prohibition didn't work. Plain paper packaging is a good idea to deter new smokers, total removal of smoking from movies and TV programmes should get a hefty push (this has fallen away in recent years and there have been programmes showing smoking as glamorous again), and I really would like to see the filter tip banned. It's the single most pervasive, disgusting litter item on the planet; it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever except to kid smokers (already dull, or they wouldn't smoke) that they are doing themselves less harm than they would otherwise; and it sits there NOT decomposing properly for hundreds of years, often outlasting their original suckers.

The cigarette remains the drug of addiction of the low-paid, the blue collar worker, the unemployed, the bogan, and the mentally ill ... all because the unit price is cheap and addiction occurs so early. Most sufferers can't after a week or two distinguish between enjoyment and the relief of nicotine withdrawal. Governments prey on these poor folk, recouping money from them in the form of indirect taxes ... a devious gouge from those who would not otherwise pay tax. Then these people die, before the government has to pay them a pension! Twisted genius, maybe, but it has to change.

Taips, you're an idiot if you smoke. You really should remind yourself every time you light up.

[skully]

Sarah Hanson-Young to squeeze a few more tears out in the Senate during debate over the Pacific Solution. Someone give her a cigarette.

[Paul Keating]

The cost to the health system is far greater than any taxes that come in.

[skully]

Ban sick people.

[Bradman]

Well that's what cigarette cases are for. I'm not going to feel demonised, though I am and always have been a considerate smoker. For those calling for a ban read your history books.

[skully]

[hops on soapbox]

Ask qmy jr what he thinks about smoking. I know my father's smoking scared the bejezus out of me as a kid. It gave him a miserable last 10 years that included heart attacks, strokes, macular degeneration (he was legally blind at 63) and accelerated prostate cancer that took him at a way too early 70.

[hops off soapbox]

[Bradman]

He only ever sees me smoke out bush and I don't smoke that much out there. I've even given up smoking in my last refuge, the study. I'm more worried about some of the video games he's exposed to and anyway the reason I've cut down is as he grows older his objections to my smoking become louder and far too reasonable for comfort.

[G.Wood]

Sarah Hanson-Young to squeeze a few more tears out in the Senate during debate over the Pacific Solution.

She reminds me of the middle link in the human centipede

[skully]

[snorfle]

[skully]

He only ever sees me smoke out bush and I don't smoke that much out there. I've even given up smoking in my last refuge, the study. I'm more worried about some of the video games he's exposed to and anyway the reason I've cut down is as he grows older his objections to my smoking become louder and far too reasonable for comfort.

Yeah, to each their own, mate. I make no judgment on an individual's rights to smoke - it's a free world. You got my point - your family's concerns are highly worthy of consideration.

Good luck with the cutting down. I know my old man said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life (he gave up cold turkey after being warned that he'd go to the back of the queue for a much needed quadruple bypass).

[JGK]

Snap with skully.


My dad was a two pack a day man, my stepfather one a day until he got told he had a couple years to live unless he quit (which he did).

I still find it hard to breathe when I get into a lift with a group of people who have just come back from a smoko.

[G.Wood]

Aye

I used to smoke. I never realised how badly smokers stink

[skully]

So your old man and stepdad are still ticking along, MrK? Good news if so.

[JGK]

Nope. Both gone. Dad at 50.

[Big Dog]

The cost to the health system is far greater than any taxes that come in.

So ban them

[skully]

Nope. Both gone. Dad at 50.

[horace]

Big Tobacco loses it's High Court challenge against plain packaging.

Grouse.


http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/big-tobacco-loses-high-court-battle-over-plain-packaging-20120815-247kz.html

best news of the week.....have just upped the wholesale price on the 50,000 'silver' cigarette cases I have imported...will struggle for supply...all proceeds to the one child taxation policy

[embee]

h

have you read the pickering blog about gillard, wilson and the awu?

[horace]

no but have read other material about the scandal...gillard was and is a grub but doubt she made a quid out of it

[JGK]

Territorians... All class.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-diary/blind-rage-at-nt-liberals-jerkoff-advert-20120820-24h66.html

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