However it is to the advantage of the rest of us.
How is more smuggling and crime and less tax an advantage to me?
don't be silly, I said reducing the market
Right, and how are you going to reduce the market further except by means of control and high tax, which is already seeing a criminal black market, which involves gangs, worth several billion pounds.
If you weren't too blinkered, you would have observed that I have said:
- give up trying to reform the hardened addicts
- try to reduce the number of children who become new addicts
The tobacco companies have to work very hard to get enough youngsters addicted to replenish the customer base to replace the old addicts who condemn themselves to an early grave.
Advertising, marketing, sponsorship, glossy packaging are all intended to attract new customers. So these are the things that are being attacked.
Puffing away in workplaces, restaurants and pubs encourages the idea of smoking as a pleasant leisure occupation. Banning it was opposed by the tobacco trade, which is always a good sign that it is likely to reduce usage.
I suppose we could employ a few wizened, wheezing, coughing smokers to sit outside tobacconists and trendy clubs, though youngsters aren't likely to make the connection. As an experienced smoker, I presume you've seen friends and relatives shrivel away into a narrow coffin as a result of their habit. I certainly have.
