But the best thing about Scotland's 'smoke free' and healthy campaign is the tobacco warnings on all the packages. They are hilarious! They have all the usual about pregnancy and smoking, and it can lead to cancer and other health problems, but then there are the crazy ones. And of course all are in huge block letters that take up the half the package. Here is one of our favorites:
A couple of them that we could not get a picture of are: YOU WILL DIE YOUNG. and SMOKING CAUSES IMPOTENCE. You cannot tell me that some guy would like the impotence pack. It has all the ingredients for an awkward encounter. That and cigarettes are really expensive here, about $11 for a small pack. Really different from the $1 dollar packs in Chile or even the $5 pack in Michigan. Given all this, there is an amazing amount of people that smoke here. If you told me I had to pay that much money for 20 cigarettes AND stand out in the cold and rain to use them, I would quit.
Mom disclaimer -- This does not mean that we, at any time, have bought, or did I buy in Chile, cigarettes.
2 comments:
As much as I approve of raising the prices on cigarettes to make them really painful to buy, I hate the smoking bans.
One of our favorite places to eat has shrunk the size of the smoking section, essentially limiting smoking to the bar. The tables three feet away are now non-smoking. How exactly have they made the experience better for non-smokers?
At $5/pack, smoking isn't "expensive" to me, so I continue to do it. At $11/pack (which I paid at the Toronto Sheraton), that's a habit that I may not be able to afford without cutting something else out (maybe Diet Coke?!).
Since I'm obviously willing to ignore the health consequences of smoking, maybe the economic consequences are enough to get me to quit.
Oh, and the warnings? The only people who actually notice them (or even pay attention to them) are non-smokers. Ask a smoker what the warning on their current pack says and I'll bet you can't find one that knows.
I knew Steve would be the comment on this one :-) And his comment is relatively mild! I would love for public places to be smoke free here, AND to quit putting the ash trays at their ENTRY DOOR where I have to wade through a crowd of smokers to get into someplace... Walking through the smoking section to use the restroom is *almost* as annoying...
Don't get me wrong, people have a right to smoke, but non-smokers also have a right not to be forced to breathe it. (Yes Steve, I know..."Stay home then")
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