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Smoking around the world

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Re: Smoking around the world

#51

Post by squiggleblaz »

briandear wrote: post #43
zavi wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better analogy would be a potential campaign to reduce obesity. If US could pull off a public fat shaming campaign as successful and the one around tobacco it would be a huge benefit to individual people's quality of life as well as economy as a whole.

Except people have no problem making snide comments to smokers when they are smoking outside of a building, but there’d be all sorts of #meTooImFat outrage if you started tsk-tsking fat people eating ice cream. However, it really isn’t anyone’s business if I’m fat. You could argue health insurance is a shared risk pool, but under that logic, we’d be giving the government the right to dictate every aspect of your life…

There's a difference between the government telling you (i.e. a real person) what to do on the one hand, and the government telling a corporation (i.e. a system that can neither live nor die, can neither suffer nor experience pleasure) how they can advertise their wares on the other hand.

For instance, Australian adults are free to smoke cigarettes. But companies operating in Australia are not allowed to sell cigarettes without conforming to various restrictions and regulations. Those aren't the same thing.

So the analogy here would be that Coca-Cola is freely allowed to sell their goods, but (a) they're not allowed to advertise them and (b) when they sell them, they should say something like "sugary beverages cause diabetes" (if that's the valid and analogous claim) and show a picture of person with a foot that needs amputating.

If you still want to buy a coke when the bottle looks like a scene from a horror show, you'd be allowed to. But they'd have to give you a reasonable assessment of the consequences of drinking this beverage (which are generally not becoming a hot fit 20 year old on the beach). (Assuming that there is a valid link between regular consumption of sugary beverages and obesity-related health problems - it's not a topic I've specifically investigated but it seems to be the general assumption.)

Re: Smoking around the world

#52

Post by toomanybeersies »

ahansen wrote: post #28
jageen wrote: post #25

In India they show vary serious warning message with photo on each cigarette box , but I did not see the same think in Japan (I am not sure about other countries)

There are massive warnings on the packs in New Zealand. I believe they can't use any branding at all on the packs in Australia.

New Zealand also introduced plain packaging recently.

An interesting side effect of plain packaging is that it's made the prevalence of illegally imported cigarettes much more noticeable. There's a fair amount tobacco smuggled in from Indonesia and SE Asia, and you can notice it now because the smuggled packs of smokes still have branding on them.

Re: Smoking around the world

#53

Post by toomanybeersies »

Is that right that the USA has fewer smokers than New Zealand and Australia?

New Zealand and Australia have made massive efforts to reduce their rates of smokers. They both have plain packaging, tobacco products aren't allowed to be visibly on sale (in New Zealand, they won't even tell you what they have, you have to guess and hope they have it in stock). They also have the most expensive tobacco in the world. A 25 pack of Marlboros will set you back AU$32 (US$23).

That doesn't seem right that the USA, which has in general put a lot less restrictions on tobacco and has much cheaper tobacco, has a lower incidence of smokers than Australia or New Zealand.

Anecdotally, most daily smokers I know aren't smoking 20 a day either.

Re: Smoking around the world

#54

Post by toomanybeersies »

dfee wrote: post #49
nkozyra wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well at minimum we mostly know that alcohol and tobacco are on the higher level on the "harm" spectrum than other illegal drugs. My takeaway is American drug usage has been shaped by a lot of socio economic factors that do not have human or societal health ramifications. There needs to be a total, science-backed overhaul of drug policy for this reason.

> Well at minimum we mostly know that alcohol and tobacco are on the higher level on the "harm" spectrum than other illegal drugs. I don’t know who “we” is, but don’t count me in that group. https://unitedrecoveryproject.com/10-most-dangerous-drugs/ And that’s by frequency. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/from-krokodi... That’s by potency. Sure. Don’t get me wrong. Nicotine is bad for you, so is Alcoh…

I'm not going to trust an article that says that using ketamine gives you HIV.

Re: Smoking around the world

#55

Post by paulie_a »

olalonde wrote: post #47
paulie_a wrote: post #41

While I quit daily smoking years ago I will never give up cigars. Even my doctor has zero issues with that. According to the CDC there is essentially no risk even smoking up to five a day. I am definitely substantially lower than that though.

You don't inhale when smoking cigars right?

Generally not, but I will typically inhale on occasion. Sure that isn't 100 percent healthy but it's infrequent.

Re: Smoking around the world

#56

Post by ams6110 »

elorant wrote: post #20

I quit the damn thing some 13 years ago and I've never looked back since. Best decision I've ever made. Earned back my life, I'm in my mid forties and my physical endurance is way better than what it was in my twenties. The thing that most smokers don't realize is that smoking is like taking heroin. You're addicted to a substance that's slowly and silently killing you. Just a couple of years ago I lost a very good fr…

My dad was a smoker most of his life. He quit in his 50s. Years later I asked him if he missed it, and his answer was "every single day."

Re: Smoking around the world

#57

Post by e40 »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #53

Is that right that the USA has fewer smokers than New Zealand and Australia? New Zealand and Australia have made massive efforts to reduce their rates of smokers. They both have plain packaging, tobacco products aren't allowed to be visibly on sale (in New Zealand, they won't even tell you what they have, you have to guess and hope they have it in stock). They also have the most expensive tobacco in the world. A 25 p…

A 25 pack of Marlboros will set you back AU$32 (US$23).

I don't smoke, but a pack in CA is, according to DDG, US$8. For comparison, 25 x US$8 = US$200.

Re: Smoking around the world

#58

Post by ddeck »

e40 wrote: post #57
toomanybeersies wrote: post #53

Is that right that the USA has fewer smokers than New Zealand and Australia? New Zealand and Australia have made massive efforts to reduce their rates of smokers. They both have plain packaging, tobacco products aren't allowed to be visibly on sale (in New Zealand, they won't even tell you what they have, you have to guess and hope they have it in stock). They also have the most expensive tobacco in the world. A 25 p…

A 25 pack of Marlboros will set you back AU$32 (US$23). I don't smoke, but a pack in CA is, according to DDG, US$8. For comparison, 25 x US$8 = US$200.

The comparison is US$23 to US$8.

In Australia, it's US$23 for a pack of 25 cigarettes. Not a carton of 25 packs of cigarettes.

Re: Smoking around the world

#59

Post by ddeck »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #53

Is that right that the USA has fewer smokers than New Zealand and Australia? New Zealand and Australia have made massive efforts to reduce their rates of smokers. They both have plain packaging, tobacco products aren't allowed to be visibly on sale (in New Zealand, they won't even tell you what they have, you have to guess and hope they have it in stock). They also have the most expensive tobacco in the world. A 25 p…

According to Wikipedia, it was 17.2% in the US compared with 14.9% in Australia in 2015 [1].

This was based on WHO data published in 2016.

According to the same article, the rate had dropped to under 13% in Australia in 2016. The CDC put the US 2016 rate at 15.5% [2].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_tobacco_consum...

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adul...

Re: Smoking around the world

#60

Post by [deleted] »

e40 wrote: post #57
toomanybeersies wrote: post #53

Is that right that the USA has fewer smokers than New Zealand and Australia? New Zealand and Australia have made massive efforts to reduce their rates of smokers. They both have plain packaging, tobacco products aren't allowed to be visibly on sale (in New Zealand, they won't even tell you what they have, you have to guess and hope they have it in stock). They also have the most expensive tobacco in the world. A 25 p…

A 25 pack of Marlboros will set you back AU$32 (US$23). I don't smoke, but a pack in CA is, according to DDG, US$8. For comparison, 25 x US$8 = US$200.

[deleted]
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