First there were graphic messages, then there were graphic pictures and now, olive green packets with no brand or logo featuring a large graphic health photos on both sides. When will this stop?
The Federal Government unveiled draft legislation to introduce plain packaging laws for cigarettes on Thursday. Health Minister Nicola Roxon said tobacco companies won’t be able to put brands or logos on the packets.
The chair of the committee that recommended plain packaging and President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Professor Mike Daube told Herald Sun that the changes will be a huge step forward. “I think it’s a tremendously important day and it’s important not just here but internationally, because if this get through in Australia, other countries are going to follow and that’s why the tobacco industry is so desperately worried.”
“This is a product that kills one in two of its regular users… it is the only consumer product that kills half of its regular users when used precisely as intended,” he said.
The Coalition, at this stage, has not confirmed whether or not it will support this draft legislation. But for the smokers out there, when is enough enough? We have the choice to smoke as adults and have decided to.
Most smokers have been respectful and smoke outside, away from others, not in the car, not around children, not on the beach. If we can’t tell the difference between Dunhill from a Malboro – which for the non-smokers out there is as important as telling the difference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi – and smoking is banned pretty much everywhere, then why is the government still persisting on selling cigarettes?
Just ban it and be done with it or leave it well alone.