Yay! Ban on Smoking Indoors in England
I'm so pleased that the total smoking ban has gone through in a free vote in the Commons this week.
While Cancer Research UK said it was "the biggest step forward in public health for half a century", Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking group Forest, conceded that the pro-smoking lobby had "lost the battle but not necessarily the war".
Go, Forest (should I say; Run, Forest, RUN!), way to be fighting the war for cancer. I wouldn't want to be on your team--but it'll make a hell of an obituary.
Chris Ogden, professional apologist at the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, said:
"The fact is that many thousands, millions of adults will choose to smoke on an informed basis and we will continue to serve that market both domestically and globally."
Translation: "We will continue to rake in profits, without compunction, no matter how many people we kill. This is because the drug we peddle is so addictive, people will send themselves and their children to an early grave rather than stop. Anyway, our sales are skyrocketing in the Far East where we can dupe the uneducated with the same lying bullshit that doesn't work over here anymore."
I am not anti-smoker, any more than I am anti-drug-addict or anti-alchoholic. But the idea that tobacco companies believe in "choice" is so wildly fallacious it brings tears to my eyes. Prove me wrong, tobacco giants: put as much research into reducing the levels of nicotine in cigarettes as you have into increasing them. Ha!
In the meantime, I can't wait for the lovely smokeless pub, smokeless restaurant, smokeless concert...ahhhhhhh.
posted by
Flora
@
3:51 PM
