Australia reaches peak clownshow

Congratulations if you had 'doctor gives child cigarettes' on your Australian clown show bingo card. I would have never thought of it myself. Seems too much like satire. Nevertheless, here we are...

Jason* is a general practitioner used to treating those addicted to tobacco, but he is at a loss as to how to help his 14-year-old son quit vaping.

 

... “I’ve tried talking to my son, warning of the health impacts of vaping and nicotine, and I’ve tried shouting and all of that sort of thing to get him to stop,” Jason said.

“It doesn’t work, because nicotine is highly addictive. We tried giving him nicotine gum but it was a waste of time because the amount of nicotine in gum is so minimal compared to the amount you get from vaping that it did nothing for his cravings.”

Jason has resorted to giving his son two cigarettes a day to replace the vape. He knows tobacco is harmful and comes with significant health consequences, but is facing a quandary that is common to many health practitioners and parents when young people come to them and say they are addicted to vaping.

 

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of children.

 

I'll say it again because it takes a while for it to sink in: a doctor is giving his own child cigarettes to smoke. 

 

Such an insane outcome is only possible in a country that has completely lost its mind about vaping. E-cigarettes have always been illegal in Australia and its people have been fed a constant diet of lies about them. Somehow they are able to ignore real world evidence from places like New Zealand and indulge in the fantasy that vaping is a tobacco industry ploy to get kids hooked on cigarettes. Many Australians believe that vaping is more dangerous than smoking. When you see Aussie doctors spreading the most extraordinary lies about vaping, it almost makes sense that a GP would try using cigarettes to help his child stop vaping. How he will then help his child stop smoking is another question, but better the devil you know, eh? At least they've finally found an example of the 'gateway effect', albeit one facilitated by a doctor.

 

The article is from the Guardian and was written by Melissa Davey whom thicko prohibitionist Simon Chapman took under his wing several years ago. After doing a Masters in 'public health' with Chapman, she immediately became a journalist and has been pumping out anti-vaping propaganda ever since. We cannot entirely discount the possibility that "Jason" does not exist and the whole thing has been made up. The Australian government recently opened a public consultation on vaping and Davey is shilling for even tougher laws to try to bolster the failed policy of prohibition. But whether Jason exists or not - and it is easy to believe that he does - it is telling that there is not a word of condemnation in the article for the doctor who - let's say it one more time - is literally giving his teenage son cigarettes. In Australia, this is apparently a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

What has been going on in Australia with vaping in recent years has all the hallmarks of a classic outbreak of mass hysteria. Historically, such outbreaks reach a tipping point when the charlatans who are pulling the strings go too far and the scales fall from people's eyes. The villagers turn on the witch-finder, everyone feels rather ashamed of themselves and life soon returns to normal. 

When a GP is handing out cigarettes to his own 14 year old son, surely that point cannot be far off in Australia?