Monday 15 August 2011

Planning for prohibition

Apologies for the week's absence. Last Tuesday was another bad day for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement as it saw the birth of my daughter (pictured left), amongst many others. As you might imagine, this event has been taking up much of my time. But normal service will be resumed this week, starting with an article I wrote for The Free Society about the people who said it wasn't about prohibition making plans for prohibition.

The piece looks at a recent paper titled 'Daring to Dream' in which anti-smoking advocates look at "end-game strategies" to wipe tobacco from the face of the earth. What could possibly go wrong, eh?

It also looks at a study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy—called 'History of Bhutan's prohibition of cigarettes: Implications for neo-prohibitionists and their critics'—which looks at how tobacco prohibition has been going in Bhutan. The answer, of course, is not well.

There is, says its author, “a thriving black market and significant and increasing tobacco smuggling… 23.7% of students had used any tobacco products (not limited to cigarettes) in the last 30 days… tobacco use for adults has not ended or is even close to ending… cigarette prohibition is instrumental in encouraging smuggling and black markets… The results of this study provide an important lesson learned for health practitioners and advocates considering or advocating, albeit gradual, but total cigarette ban as a public policy.”

That’s right. Prohibition still doesn’t work.

Do pop over and have a read...



20 comments:

Pat Nurse MA said...

It doesn't matter if tobacco becomes more dangerous through a thriving black market, or that young people start smoking because this is not about health. It's about the criminalisation of the product, its industry and its consumer by zealots who have somehow infiltrated main stream govt. This is about hate and the issue is becoming very dangerous to the stability of society and the concepts of choice and tolerance.

I don't believe anything can turn this back except for a compete and radical change of Govt and policy which is never going to happen under our current three-party system.

Congrats on your baby, btw. She's gorgeous. My new grandson was born a month ago. I do fear for the future world they are going to grow up in and the future of smoker parents like yourself and what kind of relationship we adults will have with the next generation of created smokerphobics in 20 years.

Angry Exile said...

Aaaaaaaaaaaahh! Congratulations.

I do hope you had a cigar to celebrate.

Belinda said...

She looks like you. Congratulations.

Dick Puddlecote said...

Excellent news, she looks great. Congratulations! The rapid ageing process starts here. ;)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!

She's very lovely.


Rose

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Chris. There's definitely a resemblance. JHB.

Jean said...

Congratulations. She looks great And maximum respect for being able to write such an excellent article less than 6 months from the event.
I can't wait for your next book about prohibition.

George Speller said...

Eh? You're a smoker - I have it on good authority that it's impossible for smokers to have kids.

Seriously though, congrats. A beatiful baby.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!

Gary K.

subrosa said...

Oh Chris, she's delightful. Congratulations to the two of you. As for prohibition I'll discuss that another time. A new family member is far more important.

Ann W. said...

First, Congratulations! You and Mom must be very proud.

I first came across the term "Endgame" this spring in the TOPHC programme.
"Tobacco Endgame: Evidence, Knowledge Exchange and Politics (So Close and Yet So Far)"
http://www.oahpp.ca/about/events/tophc/documents/TOPHC%20Programme%20Wed%20Apr%206%20-%20updated%20Mar16-11.pdf
The abstract is on page 22 and for some reason, they still believe that the tobacco industry is the cause or as they put it "disease vector".

It looks to me like the next step will be reducing availability by limiting the number of retail outlets allowed to sell tobacco. "For the children" of course...

Large Melot Please said...

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs S. Doesn't she look like dad. The first 4 weeks are the worst being woken up at 3 hourly intervals for food and nappy changes.

On prohibition the anti tobacco crowd have just enough rope to hand themselves.

dearieme said...

Congratulations from a new reader of this blog. But also a question - though you may have covered this topic in the past. I refer to the statistician Fisher and his seizing on the strange evidence about the effect of inhalation of cigarette smoke on lung cancer rates. I first saw it mentioned here:
http://members.iinet.com.au/~ray/TSSOASb.html


I loathe cigarette smoke myself, and would be astonished if ("first hand") smoking weren't pretty much as dangerous as it is made out to be, but that's a rum anomaly he identified. Have you any views?

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the new arrival. All the best to the three of you...
Mark Butcher

nisakiman said...

Congrats to you and Mrs. S.

As George Speller points out, it's a miracle that you not only managed to overcome the smoking related erectile dysfunction that all male smokers suffer, but that you also had a normal, healthy child, despite there probably having been the odd whiff of second-hand smoke around your pregnant wife.

Could it be that all we read in the papers is not completely true? Nooooo - surely not. I mean - they wouldn't lie, would they? After all, those people at ASH are experts, and know everything...

Becky Johnson said...

Congrats to Chris and Mrs. Chris on their beautiful new arrival! So much for smoking interfering with that fertility.

Yes, prohibition still doesn't work. Here in California, it is the plethora of small, Mom and Pop Pot grows that are keeping the big drug cartels at bey. So it is the legalization which is diminishing resources for big crime drug syndicates. Unfortunately, smoking continues to be criminalized, so our policy direction is now going in the wrong way fast.

Rollo Tommasi said...

Chris - We may have our differences. But I'm delighted about your news. Many congratulations.

Christopher Snowdon said...

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes. I shall return soon.

dearieme,
As I recall, the number of non-inhalers in the study was unfeasibly low (ie. they were kidding themselves or lying), thus making the finding meaningless.

Anonymous said...

Well congrats are in order for the Snowdon family!!Congrats, man.

dearieme said...

Ta