Avert ye gaze!
The government’s latest effort to inconvenience shop assistants has come into force today.
A ban on the display of tobacco products means that cigarettes will now be hidden from view in supermarkets, but not newsagents.
The Minister for being a dangerous liability, Andrew Lansley said he hoped the ban would stop children from going into supermarkets and buying up trolley loads of Mayfairs.
“Firstly, it reduces the visibility of tobacco and smoking to young people,” he said.
“So, if we can arrive at a place where young people just don’t think about smoking and they don’t see tobacco – then I hope we can make a big difference.”
Don’t count on it Andy.
The idea that he can ban people from thinking about cigarettes is quite a scary one, but will it actually work?
A 2006 study found that over 93,000 drug-related deaths in England and Wales were caused by both alcohol and tobacco. The bulk of the deaths (86,500) were tobacco related.
Cancer Research UK said: ” This is not a normal consumer product, it kills people.”
So tobacco is a very dangerous thing, nobody in their right mind would attempt to refute that, but if we are now hiding products that can kill people, why should we only stop at cigarettes?
As we have established, alcohol can kill people, and does, as can some household toiletries, domestic chemical products and even meat.
But none of these items are being hidden from supermarket shelves, away from the eyes of people capable of making their own decisions.
THINK OF THE CHILDREN
Public health minister Anne Milton cited evidence from Ireland which seems to suggest the mere sight of cigarettes is too much for young eyes to resist.
In a press release, she said, “We cannot ignore the fact that young people are recruited into smoking by colourful, eye-catching, cigarette displays.”
Perhaps we can, as ignoring facts seems to be the idea here.
Appealing package design has little – if any – relation to why people start. At my school, the kids around the back of the science block weren’t admiring the design aesthetics of a pack of L&B, they were trying to fit in.
It’s not colours and shapes that kids go wild for, it’s conformity and a sense of trite, contrived rebellion.
We cannot ignore this fact.
Although Ms Milton does offer some insight, “most adult smokers started smoking as teenagers,” she only seems to be stating the obvious.
And don’t we already have laws that prevent children from buying cigarettes?
So is this ban actually about protecting the young, or is it about trying to save people from themselves?
Hiding tobacco from display will only serve to further alienate smokers and may not even solve the problem at all. Has the government considered that this could have the opposite effect on young minds? If something’s hidden from view, it’s a tempting prospect to any child with a sense of curiosity.
Stashing tobacco under the counter is the government’s latest attempt to stop people making decisions. It would be much easier for everyone if we kept quiet and did as they told us. After all, with no jobs and the rising cost of smoking, it’s better for everyone and healthier too.
Now I’m off to Leeds train station for some pasties, you want one?
Journl 