User login
Recently, Canada announced new regulations on tobacco, with warnings printed on individual cigarettes, such as “poison in every puff.” This is on top of the packaging already required to have 75% of its space devoted to similar warnings, often with graphic pictures, of the potential consequences.
Make no mistake, I don’t like cigarettes and try to get smokers to quit.
But I have to wonder how successful this is going to be. I mean, you’d have to have lived under a rock for the last 70 years (or more) to not know that cigarettes (and tobacco in general) aren’t good for you, and can cause stroke, heart disease, and a multitude of cancers.
I suppose you could ban cigarettes, but that only opens up a black market. From 1920 to 1933 the United States set an example for the world with prohibition, showing how such an idea can backfire horribly.
Realistically, there are always going to be people making bad health decisions of one kind or another, including myself. Whether it’s tobacco, alcohol, or a cheeseburger and fries.
Tobacco, of course, has a much worse track record than that of the cheeseburger. We all have to eat, even though some choices are better than others. Tobacco has absolutely no biological necessity, as do food, air, and water.
But it’s remarkably addictive, not to mention profitable. Those factors will always guarantee it a place in society.
At this point,
There’s a legitimate argument to be made in trying to keep people from starting. The teenage years, where we all tend to believe we’re immortal, are when a lot of habits (good and bad) form. If gruesome pictures and repeated warnings cut down on those numbers, then in the long run it’s a very good thing. Given that Canada’s goal is to cut tobacco use from 13% down to less than 5% by 2035, this could happen. Only time will tell how it plays out.
On a side note, here in the United States tobacco use is 19% of the population. This is actually somewhat surprising to me, as a brief, not particularly scientific, review of my charts for the past few weeks found that less than 5% of my patients do it. So either some are lying or (more likely), it’s just the demographics of my practice area.
But at some point it doesn’t matter how many warnings or gory pictures people see, or where they encounter them. Some will keep smoking out of habit. Some because they actually like it. Some to be defiant. Some just because they can. And no amount of warnings is going to change their minds.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Recently, Canada announced new regulations on tobacco, with warnings printed on individual cigarettes, such as “poison in every puff.” This is on top of the packaging already required to have 75% of its space devoted to similar warnings, often with graphic pictures, of the potential consequences.
Make no mistake, I don’t like cigarettes and try to get smokers to quit.
But I have to wonder how successful this is going to be. I mean, you’d have to have lived under a rock for the last 70 years (or more) to not know that cigarettes (and tobacco in general) aren’t good for you, and can cause stroke, heart disease, and a multitude of cancers.
I suppose you could ban cigarettes, but that only opens up a black market. From 1920 to 1933 the United States set an example for the world with prohibition, showing how such an idea can backfire horribly.
Realistically, there are always going to be people making bad health decisions of one kind or another, including myself. Whether it’s tobacco, alcohol, or a cheeseburger and fries.
Tobacco, of course, has a much worse track record than that of the cheeseburger. We all have to eat, even though some choices are better than others. Tobacco has absolutely no biological necessity, as do food, air, and water.
But it’s remarkably addictive, not to mention profitable. Those factors will always guarantee it a place in society.
At this point,
There’s a legitimate argument to be made in trying to keep people from starting. The teenage years, where we all tend to believe we’re immortal, are when a lot of habits (good and bad) form. If gruesome pictures and repeated warnings cut down on those numbers, then in the long run it’s a very good thing. Given that Canada’s goal is to cut tobacco use from 13% down to less than 5% by 2035, this could happen. Only time will tell how it plays out.
On a side note, here in the United States tobacco use is 19% of the population. This is actually somewhat surprising to me, as a brief, not particularly scientific, review of my charts for the past few weeks found that less than 5% of my patients do it. So either some are lying or (more likely), it’s just the demographics of my practice area.
But at some point it doesn’t matter how many warnings or gory pictures people see, or where they encounter them. Some will keep smoking out of habit. Some because they actually like it. Some to be defiant. Some just because they can. And no amount of warnings is going to change their minds.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Recently, Canada announced new regulations on tobacco, with warnings printed on individual cigarettes, such as “poison in every puff.” This is on top of the packaging already required to have 75% of its space devoted to similar warnings, often with graphic pictures, of the potential consequences.
Make no mistake, I don’t like cigarettes and try to get smokers to quit.
But I have to wonder how successful this is going to be. I mean, you’d have to have lived under a rock for the last 70 years (or more) to not know that cigarettes (and tobacco in general) aren’t good for you, and can cause stroke, heart disease, and a multitude of cancers.
I suppose you could ban cigarettes, but that only opens up a black market. From 1920 to 1933 the United States set an example for the world with prohibition, showing how such an idea can backfire horribly.
Realistically, there are always going to be people making bad health decisions of one kind or another, including myself. Whether it’s tobacco, alcohol, or a cheeseburger and fries.
Tobacco, of course, has a much worse track record than that of the cheeseburger. We all have to eat, even though some choices are better than others. Tobacco has absolutely no biological necessity, as do food, air, and water.
But it’s remarkably addictive, not to mention profitable. Those factors will always guarantee it a place in society.
At this point,
There’s a legitimate argument to be made in trying to keep people from starting. The teenage years, where we all tend to believe we’re immortal, are when a lot of habits (good and bad) form. If gruesome pictures and repeated warnings cut down on those numbers, then in the long run it’s a very good thing. Given that Canada’s goal is to cut tobacco use from 13% down to less than 5% by 2035, this could happen. Only time will tell how it plays out.
On a side note, here in the United States tobacco use is 19% of the population. This is actually somewhat surprising to me, as a brief, not particularly scientific, review of my charts for the past few weeks found that less than 5% of my patients do it. So either some are lying or (more likely), it’s just the demographics of my practice area.
But at some point it doesn’t matter how many warnings or gory pictures people see, or where they encounter them. Some will keep smoking out of habit. Some because they actually like it. Some to be defiant. Some just because they can. And no amount of warnings is going to change their minds.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.