Death by Smoking!...Pics to follow!

The BBQ Pit
1

Smoking is bad! It will KILL you!

I know this is scary new information to many of us. For decades smokers have been merrily unaware of the DANGER.

Helpfully the New Zealand govt has decided to follow the lead of much wiser countries like Canada and Australia, they have decided to show smokers pictures of what could/will happen to parts of their bodies "Gory images of rotting teeth and lungs set to appear on all cigarette packaging will force more people to quit smoking, the Government says. ".

GEE THANKS Nanny state! I HONESTLY DID NOT KNOW SMOKING COULD KILL ME! I really appreaciate the heads up.

I’m sure now you (the govt) are all about teaching us consequences, all cars will come complete with pics of people wrapped around lamp posts or other cars. People dripping in blood and gore from road carnage will teach me not to drive. We all know how horrific the road toll is we just need pics to prove it.

And I just know that all chocolate bars will feature pics of people fused to couches because they couldn’t resist the chocolate. MC’D’s burgers will have pics of people in ambulances being rushed to hospital as their hearts give up.

All alcohol containers will come complete with graphic illustrations of trashed livers and people involved in unsafe sex.

Fireworks will include closeups of eyes taken out, as will lawnmowers.

Your local park will feature pics of kids who broke their arm on the slide or swing.

Marajuana will have pics of…oh no wait! Thats already illegal because it is BAD FOR YOU!

JEEEEEEEEEEEEZ Smoking is bad for you. YOU know that! WE know that. It is already illegal to smoke anywhere (in your own car is the latest suggestion). Packets already contain warning…so warnings with gross pics must work surely?

For fucks sake just make it illegal. Dope is illegal, Heroin is illegal, Cocaine is illegal, Asbestos is illegal! Just make smoking illegal!

If you don’t have the balls or MORE likely the will to lose the tax dollars then SHUT THE FUCK UP!

The tax dollars that smoking generates are huge and probably keep the govt in business. We are already pariahs enough with the shock shit. Graphic pics on ciggie packets are to keep anti smokers happy, we all know that. The govt feels a duty to pacify the anti smoking whingers.

SERIOUSLY! Banning smoking in cars? WTF! How would you even BEGIN to police that!

If the govt really gave a shit about smoking it would be illegal and they would be way poorer.

2

You left out “and others.”

{snip}

You don’t already have those public service adverts? We had them in Virginia back in the 1970s.

{snip}

I’ve seen public service advertisements along that line already, but it was on TV.

When I was a young 'un, there were plenty of public service ads on TV and in the newspapers along this line also. You don’t have those in NZ?

If it’ll keep more of y’all from smoking in public, hey, I’ll happily send some cash to your government to help defray the costs.

I didn’t comment on the snipped parts because I really didn’t think they were that relevant or applicable. The part about taxes, though, is the dilemma posed by what’s known as a sin tax.

3

I did. My bad. Were you talking about others being killed by smoking or cars though? Sorry to ask it just seems that statistics meant you were talking about cars but the topic was smoking.

4

We have public service adverts out the wahzoo (more then you …soon on the packets). We have had anti smoking messages in the public since the 70’s too. Car accident graphic warning ads too but how would you like to pick up a new car with dead people plastered all over the side in pictures?

You chose not to comment about sin tax when that is my major gripe, my smoking (tax take of) probably funded someones bipass surgery.

As a smoker I pay MORE tax then most. Why do I need pictures to show me where my dollars are going?

5

Nope. No snip there. My comment immediately follows the bit about the smoking.

6

Not necessarily.

You know, there are people who are responsible smokers. Responsible in the sense that they are sensitive to the people around them who don’t smoke and who don’t enjoy having smoke puffed in their faces. These people have taken notice of advertisements which concentrate on the effects of second hand smoking and have adjusted their habit accordingly.

Such people avoid smoking when, for example, they have visitors who don’t smoke themselves. In such circumstances they may well go outside for a cigarette to avoid inconvenience to these visitors. They wouldn’t dream of lighting up in someone else’s house, or asking if they can do so.

When they are in a restaurant where smoking is allowed they will not smoke a cigarette out of deference to others around them who may wish to eat a meal without disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Furthermore, when they smoke on the street they carefully extinguish their cigarette butts and place them in a litter bin. They examine it closely first to make absolutely sure it is not still alight in order not to cause a conflagration. Similarly, they will not throw cigarette ends out of a car window because (a) that constitutes litter and (b) it could be a fire hazard.

I am willing to believe that smokers with this attitude do not make up the majority. They do however exist, and to assume that they don’t exist is both facile and unrealistic.

I am one of these smokers. I am not expecting any medals for my attitude but I do expect recognition for those smokers who have respect for others around them who don’t smoke and don’t like smoking.

7

Well said. It was noticed that I always put my butt in the jumbo bin outside work, I was asked if I was positive it was out before I put it in there.

What should I have said?

a) Yep I made sure it was dead before I put it in the bin.

b) NO! I’m a SMOKER…MY aim IS TO kill YOU.

c) Oh dear I never realised smoking was bad for you. I shall immediately smoke far, far, far, far away from you at a premium price while looking at pics of you dying. I am a terrible person, it is a good thing smoking will kill me.
Funnily enough I not only thought a) but I carried through on the threat.

8

I think I’d buy more alcohol if it came with free porn.

9

Shit Yeah! Alcohol is good. Porn is good. Smoking is evil personified.

Ban smoking and make porn compulsory :smiley:

10

I agree. Advertising to keep drug addicts from their addiction? Like that ever works.

11

What if the alcohol came with a picture of a guy waking up to a really ugly woman?

12

I will quit smoking my way when I’m damn good and ready. All ads like that do is prolong the time that I remain a smoker, leftover teen rebellion and all that good stuff.

That’s the thing that really pisses me off, they charge smokers a much higher tax rate and then use (at least a portion) of that money to tell us we shouldn’t smoke. Don’t even get me started if the latest cigarette tax proposed in CA goes through next tuesday. They want another 2.65 per pack.

13

I just received a mailing promoting a constitutional amendment in our state that would prevent municipalities from enacting public smoking bans and roll back antismoking laws already in place.

The ad features a photo of three attractive young women in stylish outfits, smoking in a party-type setting (presumably the sort of fun times that the nasty antismokers want to outlaw).

The obvious counter-ad would show three prematurely wrinkled nicotine-stained hags on a park bench with their nasal cannulas, hauling around oxygen tanks.

I’ve pointed out to you before that Prohibition does not work, and merely encourages smuggling and organized crime. Governments make back at least some of the socioeconomic and health-related costs of smoking through taxes and so regulation makes far more sense than a total ban.

Odd how you’ve never seen fit to respond to this point.

14

Judging from the tone of the OP, the “calm” part of your handle is just there for decoration, right?

:smiley:

15

I work in a government building, and for some reason there’s always a table set up in the lobby with pamphlets for whatever social cause some department is dealing with at the time. Last month was old people month (health care info, elder abuse, etc.).
This month there’s one about the dangers of smoking while pregnant, with a bulleted list of items you’d have thought reasonably smart pets would already know, but apparently there’s a need.

I do second your idea of making it illegal. Or making pot legal, one of the two.

16

One rather startling ad is now airing on American TV.

It shows a couple of cowboy types in Western gear, one riding a horse, the other (I believe) driving a covered wagon. They are proceeeding down a crowded street in a large urban center, drawing curious stares from onlookers. They stop on the street and deliver an impromptu concert.

The singer draws a microphone up to the hole in his throat and (in the buzzy, inflectionless tones of a post-laryngectomy patient trained to vocalize without benefit of operational vocal cords) “sings” about smoking.

Creepy. Effective? Maybe.

The singer is about the same age (40 or so) as a man I saw as a resident physician at a Veterans Administration hospital. This patient was another long-term smoker facing laryngectomy, loss of his voice and likely early death from metastatic squamous cell carcinoma. I still clearly recall the sense of fear and hopelessness radiating from this man. If I could somehow distill it into an ad or cigarette pack sticker, it might encourage a few others to give up smoking.

17

That’s called “truth in advertising”.

18

Obligitory PDF warning regarding thisLink

On page 3 of the linked document is a billboard showing a man who’s jaw was removed as a result of snuff use. I personally know two people who were inspired to give up dippin’ and cite that billboard as the reason. That only leaves one person I know who still dips.

Anicdotes are not data, I know, but in my very limited world view, this particular billboard was effective in bringing home the reality of what these tobacco users already “knew”.

19

I know nobody will believe it… but I helped fight, and we won! … in Chicago.

But my podunk town of Tupelo, Mississippi just passed this crap too.

I figured that a “red state” would not enact such draconian laws.

Wrong.

Score another blow toward human rights… but this time, it’s the democrats.

20

Second hand snuff and dip.

Way to advance your “cause”