131–140 of 151 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Australia is pretty high, in Sydney they go for more than $25 a pack. Still, smuggling would require long boats rides and stuff, while Australia is a pretty rule of law place.
Yeah. If you’re going to take the huge risk of importing something illegal here, it might as well be cocaine or heroin et al. That way you make a decent profit for your risk at least.
The only measure that has ever been shown to work to reduce smoking is to make smoking less affordable. Tax cigarettes and people smoke less. Tax them highly and kids sure can't afford them. It's more politically easy to put money into paying celebrities to beg kids not to smoke, but it's not actually effective. It's just theater so politicians can say they tried. Here, Greece is seeing the affordability fall just be…
> The only measure that has ever been shown to work to reduce smoking is to make smoking less affordable. [citation needed] I grew up with plenty of poor high school kids who had no problem finding cigarettes even when the taxes were jacked up on them here in Canada. I know many of them as adults who continued to smoke even as the price has continued to climb over the last 10yrs. I've never heard anyone say they quit…
Many countries ban advertisements of cigarettes and recently there is a culture shift in Movies.
I definitely think it’s a generational change.
I would like to see one country go all in vaping(and snus) and completely ban cigarettes.
I'm honestly surprised that vaping hasn't naturally killed off cigarettes already. I suspect it will eventually. You get to consume nicotine while eliminating maybe 95% of the downsides of smoking tobacco. Plus it's usually a lot cheaper.
Advanced vaporizers, which could successfully substitute cigarettes are even less convenient: replacement coils are not standardized, firmware is buggy, juice is leaking, settings are confusing etc. It's not rocket science but enough of a barrier for most people as it seems. E.g. my vaping setup is: a mechanical vaporizer (so no firmware issues), a charger and a set of 18650 IMR cells (you have to buy them online since they are not intended for sale to consumers), an atomizer building deck (an ohm-meter + power source to burn coils outside the vaporizer), all kinds of heating wire, tools to work with the wire, wick, juice. Compare to a cigarette smoking: cigarettes, lighter, ashtray (if you lucky to be able to smoke inside), all available everywhere and you can get by just with the cigarettes.
While it is a joke I did see plenty of people turn financial "freedom" into their personal hell of drugs and/or gambling.
The weirdest example was an extremely hard working self-employed construction worker with a large variety of skills. The most happy period in his life (from my perspective) was when he lived on a camping in a tiny tent with a budget of 5 euro per day. All he did was eat fruit, lift weights, sit in the sun and chat with the camping folk.
At a different times he had 20 employees. Every day he smoked 2 packs of cigarettes, 5 grams of weed and god knows how much cocaine. But that was during work. He spend all of his free time gazing at slot machines. At the time he also never showed up for appointments if they didn't involve large amounts of money. He owed everyone money that he could easily pay but just didn't show up to do. Great way to lose friends, borrow as much as you can then pretend it isn't important enough to pay them back.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many countries now have rules where the packets of cigarette show people suffering serious health concerns. This is also said to work well. I'm also sure no smoking indoors or on public streets laws works to reduce smoking well too.
It doesn't. A packet cover (yes, they make cigarette packets covers) costs 2 Euros, and smokers don't seem to be concerned about the disgusting images they put on the packets. With all the added benefits that everybody at the table with a smoker gets to enjoy the view of a gangrenous foot with a missing finger or a black lung destroyed by tar and nicotine whenever the smoker pulls out the packet and places it on the…
The smokes are kept behind a counter here to prevent theft. I buy a pack from a 14ish year old supermarket employee/girl. She turned around to get it, gazed over the packaging looking for the one I ordered, then she looked away, her head sunk between the shoulders and she made a face as if she just saw someone eat a baby. Took her a good 4 seconds to get back her senses and face the wall of death for a second trial.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>The only measure that has ever been shown to work to reduce smoking is to make smoking less affordable. Doesn't this just create an illegal distribution network that sells them cheaper?
Nowhere to get cheaper tobacco from, nothing to distribute cheaper.
When financial life is total shit one might be depressed to the point that giving up smoking is impossible.
Likewise, if one has a lot of money in the bank a pack of smokes would have to cost something like 1000 Euro before one would start to notice it. Some could even afford 30 k per month without giving it a second thought.
As a smoker I see only one viable solution.
1) Remove all cigarettes from the stores.
2) Have doctors do regular blood tests to prescribe the desired amount of tobacco and/or chewing gum. No brands, just one size fits all. No added lead, tar, chlorine etc etc
3) make a time released mechanism to get at each cigarette.
4) Gradually reduce the amount of tobacco served.
5) If the patient fails to reduce his intake he has to make an appointment with the doctor. Regular blood tests will show his current intake so that the doctor can re-adjust his ration to the state of the habit.
6) If step 5 fails repeatedly there can be a kind of hospitalization (read prison) where one isn't allowed to smoke at all for 2 weeks.
I think I smoke 15 cigarettes per day.
My doctor would prescribe me 105 this week in 7 time locked boxes and another 105 next week.
2 weeks seems enough to get the added stress from the rationing figured out.
After 2 weeks he would only prescribe 98 in 7 boxes of 14. This wouldn't bother me at all.
In week 5 and 6 there would be only 13 per day left.
At that point I would have to seriously start considering which to skip. Maybe the one with the coffee right after waking up can be delayed for an hour?
Week 7 and 8 there would be 12.
I might save one for bed time in stead of just lighting them up at every idle moment of the day.
A most interesting effect starts kicking roughly at this point: Other people cant have one.
9, 10 = 11
11,12 = 10
13,14 = 9
15,16 = 8
17,18 = 7
19,20 = 6
21,22 = 5
23,24 = 4
25,26 = 3
27,28 = 2
29,30 = 1
30,31 = 1 every 2 days
32,33 = 1 every 3 days
34,35 = 1 every 4 days
36,37 = 1 every 5 days
38,39 = 1 every 6 days
40,41 = 1 every week
42 = ur cured bro!
Blood tests continue however!
3 months no nicotine = you get 1000 euro
6 months no nicotine = you get 3000 euro
1 year no nicotine = you get 5000 euro
Fail to show up for the tests or start smoking again: A fine of 1 month salary and back to step 2.
People who never smoked will get the same reward.
The money isn't an issue as smokers have paid crazy amounts of tax over the last few years.
So far it was not like a road tax to pay for roads it was a troll tax simply to take your money away. If it is such a great idea we could easily slap a similar 500% troll tax on 90% of the food for not being the most nutritious choice.
Not getting enough exercise? A flat tax of 500 Euro per month seems a great way to cure you? no?
Overweight? woah! that will be another 300.
An exponential tax for drinking also seems great?
We could even prescribe push ups or other exercises and monitor you at home. Imagine the tax money to be made!
Then we could all band together and hate on fat people the way we troll smokers.
I mean, are we talking about some sadist fetish or is it really all because people care so much about the smokers health?
At my job all but one guy smoke, our coffee room is never used by anyone. We all stand outside the building. There is no one else there, no one can see us (LOL!) and we bring an ashtray. Now someone decided that we cant smoke on company terrain anymore. We have to walk 200 meters and stand outside the fence - but not in a way customers would notice us.
This is not because they care so much, it is to cater to the hysteria from anti-smoking sadists. People who've made it their business to meddle in other peoples lives because they can. Their hysterical screaming YOU CANT SMOKE HERE! doesn't at all suggest they ohhh care sohhh much about my health.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm honestly surprised that vaping hasn't naturally killed off cigarettes already. I suspect it will eventually. You get to consume nicotine while eliminating maybe 95% of the downsides of smoking tobacco. Plus it's usually a lot cheaper.
Some people believe that people are actually addicted to MAOIs in tobacco smoke (though this does not explain dipping) but I think the issue is that the literal "e-cigarettes" (small units, which look like a cigarette) you can buy everywhere are neither good enough sources of nicotine, nor convenience. Advanced vaporizers, which could successfully substitute cigarettes are even less convenient: replacement coils are…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people believe that people are actually addicted to MAOIs in tobacco smoke (though this does not explain dipping) but I think the issue is that the literal "e-cigarettes" (small units, which look like a cigarette) you can buy everywhere are neither good enough sources of nicotine, nor convenience. Advanced vaporizers, which could successfully substitute cigarettes are even less convenient: replacement coils are…
so we are addicted to dopamine inhibitor inhibitors?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"some estimate that for most intents and purposes, tobacco tax increases are also regressive even at the population level" [...] "While there are numerous studies that support the effectiveness of increasing prices, most declare that equity implications need to be paramount." An important point to be sure. I think we should just execute smokers. Surely a study will show that reduces smoking. /s ...or maybe we can jus…
Murder is a disproportionate response. Making it legal to throw or smear poop on someone's face would be approximately equal in my mind to public smoking. You want to smoke? Fine, control the entire byproduct so it doesn't enter the personal space of others. Oh you can't control it? Sounds like you're out of control. Well I can get all out of control too, here's a poopstache. Yes this would be assault with a biohazar…