MK Mosi Raz (Meretz) proposed a law that would cancel the exception granted to newspapers for advertising smoking products. The idea would be to phase it out slowly, with decreasing the amount of advertising allowed each year between 2025 and April 1, 2029 by 25%, until there will be no more print advertising of smoking products by the end of the decade. Between passage of the law and April 1, 2025 advertising will still be allowed but a counter ad opposite any smoking ad would be required that opposes smoking - warnings, dangers, etc.
source: Hamechadesh
I think this is great and it is about time this is fully banned. I dont understand how any young person can start smoking nowadays, with all the knowledge we have today of the dangers and addictions. But they do. And I have kids that do as well, and it happens in both yeshivas and the army, but I still dont get it. Cigarettes should be outlawed like drugs are, but at least they should be heavily taxed and banned from advertising.
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In New Zealand they are proposing a new law which is aimed at stopping future generations from taking up smoking.
ReplyDeleteNext year they will increase the minimal age to smoke or buy cigarettes from 18 to 19, the following year it will be raised to 20, and increase by every year so that anyone born after 2008 will never legally be able to buy or smoke cigarettes. And over the next few decades, fewer and fewer places will bother to sell them as the market gets smaller every year.
This approach only could work in a geographically isolated country like New Zealand. If they tried that approach here, it would just prop up the Palestinian economy as very quickly there would be roadside stands selling cigarettes at every intersection in Area C.
Similarly if a US or European state tried something like that, people would pop over the nearest border to stock up on smokes.
I dont think smoking age laws ever prevented anyone from smoking. Studies have shown most people who smoke start in their early teens (though I dont remember the numbers or percentages). They would also have to be banned from duty free and people bringing them in to the country purchased on airplanes or elsewhere.
DeleteWell, no one starts smoking because they see an ad in the newspaper either. Which means this is politically posturing and yet another restriction on freedom (yes, even "for your own good" is a restriction) by the government and thus to be viewed with suspicion.
DeleteMeanwhile, the Labour government in NZ is in favor of legalizing pot, which should tell you a lot about what these laws are really about. Poor people smoke cigarettes. Less poor people smoke cigars, or pot.
Deletepeople dont start because of ads (though maybe they used to when the cigs ads were more glamorous with rugged cowboys and sexy women) but the ads create an atmosphere of public acceptance, just like selling cigs openly does, which is why that was banned a few years ago.
DeleteI am not sure pot is the same because it doesnt have the poisons and toxins cigs have. I am not aware, and correct me if I am wrong, of pot causing cancer or other health issues, though obviously it does get people high, besides for medicinal benefits.
Until now with pot almost universally banned, it really made no sense why cigarettes and alcohol were allowed. Now that pot is legal in many places those lines are blurred more
Pot is smoked. Most of the damage from tobacco comes from smoke. Sucking smoke into your lungs is pretty obviously bad for your health no matter what's the source.
DeleteWhich means that vaping is relatively at least much, much safer. But the zealots go after vaping with a passion.
from that perspective vaping should be relatively safer. the real problem with vaping is that the materials are made from all sorts of chemicals that are mostly not supervised and have no standards. Nobody really knows what is in them and what effects they have
DeleteI think you forgot the "not" in your sentence (I will add it, capitalized): "Cigarettes should NOT be outlawed like drugs are, but at least..."
ReplyDelete