Australia plans first plain cigarette packets

[Geriatrix]

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-new...st-plain-cigarette-packets-20100429-ttw1.html

Australia said on Thursday it would become the world's first country to ban logos and branding on cigarette packets, sparking a furious response from the tobacco industry.

Cigarettes will be sold in plain, standardised packages carrying only graphic warnings against smoking from 2012, under new legislation announced by the government aimed at cutting tobacco use.

"Cigarettes are not cool, cigarettes kill people," said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. "Therefore the government makes no apology whatsoever for what it's doing.


Australia plans first plain cigarette packets
April 29, 2010 - 12:34PM

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Australia said on Thursday it would become the world's first country to ban logos and branding on cigarette packets, sparking a furious response from the tobacco industry.

Cigarettes will be sold in plain, standardised packages carrying only graphic warnings against smoking from 2012, under new legislation announced by the government aimed at cutting tobacco use.

"Cigarettes are not cool, cigarettes kill people," said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. "Therefore the government makes no apology whatsoever for what it's doing.
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"The cigarette tobacco companies will hate this measure, they will oppose it. Nonetheless we believe this and other measures help to reduce smoking. We intend therefore to get on with the job."

Leading cigarette company Imperial Tobacco Australia said it would challenge the move on the grounds that it would affect its profits, arguing that the branding has commercial value.

"Introducing plain packaging just takes away the ability of a consumer to identify our brand from another brand, and that's of value to us," a spokeswoman told ABC radio.

"It really affects the value of our business as a commercial enterprise and we will fight to support protecting our international property rights."

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the legislation would be carefully drafted to withstand any legal challenges.

"The World Health Organisation makes it quite clear that this should be considered by countries, this type of action," Health Minister Nicola Roxon told public broadcaster ABC.

"We won't be put off by the fact that tobacco companies won't like this action. Tobacco companies didn't like it when advertising was banned. But this is the last remaining step that needed to be taken."

Tobacco advertising is outlawed in Australia, and smoking is also banned in most enclosed public spaces such as offices and restaurants.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

 

[copacetic]

Around 5.4 million deaths a year are caused by tobacco.

They should be made illegal. If cannabis is illegal (0 death's in its entire history of use) then why is this **** not?

Boo ****ing hoo to the companies.

*edit*

Just for clarification my stance is not for any sort of drug to be illegal, just pointing out the illogicality of the current situation.

 

[general_koffi]

"Cigarettes are not cool, cigarettes kill people," said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

I'm sorry, but Kevin Rudd does not have the cultural authority to proclaim what is and what is not cool...

 

[DJ...]

And how exactly is this going to prevent smoking-related deaths? I think it's a ridiculous idea. The teeny-boppers will smoke, regardless of what the packaging looks like. I know I didn't pick up my first pack because the Benson and Hedges packaging looked zomg awesome...

 

[copacetic]

And how exactly is this going to prevent smoking-related deaths? I think it's a ridiculous idea. The teeny-boppers will smoke, regardless of what the packaging looks like. I know I didn't pick up my first pack because the Benson and Hedges packaging looked zomg awesome...

Step by step, denying the cigarette companies their power? You have to admit it's become a cultural norm for teenagers to smoke, one of the reasons for this is surely the branding and visibility of the various cigarette companies that abound in popular culture?

 

[Hosehead]

As soon as cigarette smoking is seen as uncool, youngsters won't pick them up.
Governments should run shock campaigns like the okes in Montana have http://www.montanameth.org/
But that would be dumb
Because Government gets the tax money from the sale of cigarettes
If Government was serious about stamping out tobacco use - They would ban it completely

 

[w1z4rd]

You must be a very dull and boring teenager to think smoking is cool.

 

[davemc]

Interesting.

The net effect is that the consumer will probably not be able to get hold of the brand that they want.
This will mean that they will end up buying similar lower quality product, hurting their throats and lungs and ruining the smoking experience.

Hmmm.

 

[Hosehead]

You must be a very dull and boring teenager to think smoking is cool.

Teens can't help it. It's glamourized in the nightclubs by the cigarette companies who hire sexy girls to flog the goods. It's constantly in product placement in films. Next time you watch a US film; make a note of how many cigarettes you see.

 

[DJ...]

Matter of choice, I'm sorry. You can only legislate against things to a certain degree until you might as well request a state-cooked meal every evening. You cannot legislate against stupidity - and yes, I'm one of the stupid crowd who smoke.

I just see this as a big white elephant...

 

[copacetic]

Matter of choice, I'm sorry. You can only legislate against things to a certain degree until you might as well request a state-cooked meal every evening. You cannot legislate against stupidity - and yes, I'm one of the stupid crowd who smoke.

I just see this as a big white elephant...

I agree with your remark regarding legislation but I think when it comes to smoking, when it entered the public consciousness it was not understood how harmful it was - It became a huge money machine which is nigh impossible to stop, even after it was discovered just how harmful and addictive cigarettes are.

I don't specifically support this sort of action but what I do feel quite strongly about is making these sort of decisions based on a relative harm index and not based on what is generating massive profits. I certainly don't have time for whining CEO's, that's for sure.

 

[DJ...]

What I don't have time for are whiny politicians from nanny-states. They're worse than China when it comes to what their citizens can and can't do. Companies too.

If they were doing something practical about the smoking problem, I could understand it - but limiting marketing exposure has not in the past, and will not curb the problem.

I believe the "kids smoke because they think it's cool" excuse is punted far too often without validity...

 

[copacetic]

I have to admit, Australia is going a bit crazy.

I think, tobacco should be lumped in with all the other drugs and all that money spent on scaring kids about drugs and putting people in jail should be used to properly educate people about what to put into their bodies.

I subscribe to the argument along the line of, that if the government tells you, for example, that cannabis is terribly dangerous drug that will cause you great harm, yet when a person uses it, it does virtually nothing adverse, why would a person then believe what the government has to say about tobacco?

 

[Divestar]

This is BS!! (Not the article, the idea!)

 

[LazyLion]

is sticking a loaded gun in your mouth and pulling the trigger also illegal? Cos they should ban that stuff! Seriously, it could kill you.

 

[PeterCH]

And how exactly is this going to prevent smoking-related deaths? I think it's a ridiculous idea. The teeny-boppers will smoke, regardless of what the packaging looks like. I know I didn't pick up my first pack because the Benson and Hedges packaging looked zomg awesome...

Youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones, the researchers reported in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The findings back up the idea that smoking bans discourage tobacco use in teens by sending the message that smoking is frowned upon in the community, as well as simply by reducing their exposure to smokers in public places, said Dr. Michael Siegel, of Boston University School of Public Health, and the study's lead author.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24469911/

and even, in the same article

'No single reason' for smoking
"There is no single reason why young people engage in risky behaviors like smoking,'' he said. "We believe that there should be a multifaceted approach to address youth smoking.''

Banning packet logos is the same as banning advertising. The packet is a miniature ad in itself. It's just another facet in the war on smoking.

 

[PeterCH]

This is BS!! (Not the article, the idea!)

It's akin to the ban on cigarette advertising. It's just an extension thereof. Why do you think anything sold is marked? Packet logos are small ads. If you're gonna ban TV ads, magazine ads and even remove names from F1 cars, why not ban the packets too?

 

[PeterCH]

As soon as cigarette smoking is seen as uncool, youngsters won't pick them up.
Governments should run shock campaigns like the okes in Montana have http://www.montanameth.org/
But that would be dumb
Because Government gets the tax money from the sale of cigarettes
If Government was serious about stamping out tobacco use - They would ban it completely

They are doing it but gradually. The aim is social engineering - they want to wean current smokers off cigarettes and reduce future numbers of smokers. Hopefully the market will be so small one day that the current tobacco corps will go out of business. You can't otherwise just ban smoking - you know very well that what happened during the US alcohol prohibition? Everyone continued to drink, just that criminals took over the distribution channels.

 

[Hosehead]

- you know very well that what happened during the US alcohol prohibition? Everyone continued to drink, just that criminals took over the distribution channels.

Well the Islamic countries are doing a splendid job on banning alcohol Come to think of it we have our first Alcohol Free hotel in the Cape- The Coral

 

[PeterCH]

Well the Islamic countries are doing a splendid job on banning alcohol Come to think of it we have our first Alcohol Free hotel in the Cape- The Coral

Note that what you said goes with my point. In those countries it is culture (and religion - but the two are so intertwined that they are synonymous) which is pushing and reinforcing an alcohol ban. Young people grow up in surroundings where no-one drinks so from a young age drinking is alien to them and different. It's like eating dog in Korea - I'm sure it's delicious but people in the West would not enjoy eating dog unless their parents and elders first started doing it and it became culturally entrenched. In the 1930s the prohibition banned alcohol and people who were still used to the dop suddenly found that shops and bars no longer sold it - so they had to go to speakeasy's and other underground sources of expensive booze because they were culturally trained to do so and therefore there was a market of willing millions who had some money and were happy to make Al Capone and Bugs Moran rich.