Tasmania considers cigarette ban for anyone born after 2000

The Australian state of Tasmania is considering a ban on cigarette sales to anyone born after the year 2000 in an attempt to create a smoking-free generation

A week after Australia upheld its world-first laws plain packaging laws, Tasmania's upper house unanimously passed a motion to introduce the ban from 2018.

The measure was proposed by Ivan Dean, a Tasmanian independent MP, who said the ban would be easy to enforce because the state already has restrictions on sales of cigarettes to minors. It would be the world's first such age-based ban and is also reportedly being considered in Singapore and Finland.

Mr Dean, a former police officer and mayor, said the ban would prevent young people "from buying a product that they can't already buy" but would not affect adult smokers.

"This would mean that we would have a generation of people not exposed to tobacco products," he said.

"It would be easier for retailers to enforce because when they ask for ID, all they would need to see if the person was born after the year 2000 ... As the generation reaches 18 years, there will be fewer of them smoking and while some of those first turning 18 might smoke, as time goes on fewer and fewer will."

The state government, which will now consider whether to back the proposal in the lower house, indicated support for the ban.

"Saying that those people who sell cigarettes legally cannot sell cigarettes to a certain age is appropriate," said Michelle O'Byrne, the state's health minister. "We do it now. What the smoke-free generation would say is that, potentially, anyone from the year 2000 would not be able to buy cigarettes ever, because every year, it would just get that little bit older."

The measures follows a decision by the High Court last week to uphold the country's new plain packaging laws after an appeal by some of the world's biggest tobacco companies, including Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco. From December 1, cigarettes in Australia will be sold in drab olive packs with brand logos replaced by large graphic health warnings.

The federal Attorney General, Nicola Roxon, said after the court win last week she does not plan to ban cigarettes, but noted that if tobacco were a new product it would probably not be allowed.

The island state of Tasmania has the country's highest rates of smoking, with one in four young people smoking compared with one in five nationally.

While the proposal was today backed by health advocates and antismoking campaigners, retailers warned it will turn the island into a "nanny state".

"There needs to be awareness and education programs rather than throwing the book at today's youth, said Russell Zimmerman, from the Australian Retailers Association. "It puts back virtually you into to a nanny state rather than allowing consumers to make their own, informed decisions." As the clamour has grown for an outright nationwide ban on cigarette sales, critics have argued that such a step could lead to bans on other products such as alcohol or fatty foods.

However, Professor Simon Chapman, an antismoking advocate from the University of Sydney, said a ban on cigarettes would not lead to a "slippery slope", mainly because tobacco was far more deadly than other products.

"If the slope is slippery, it's the most unslippery slippery dip I have ever seen in my life," he said.

"The risks of smoking are just so off the table ... We started banning tobacco advertising in 1976 and there has been no other commodity where there has been anything like a serious move to do what we have done with tobacco." The opposition in Tasmania, the site of some of Britain's harshest penal colonies, said the proposed ban was excessive.

"What's next, 50 lashes for people who break the rules?" said Jeremy Rockliff, a Liberal party spokesman.

Here's some information regarding tobacco from the book 'The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the Origins of Knowledge' by Jeremy Narby, ...



pg 120

Second, there are fundamental differences between the shamanic use of tobacco and the consumption of industrial cigarettes. The botanical variety used in the Amazon contains up to eighteen times more nicotine than the plants used in Virginia-type cigarettes. Amazonian tobacco is grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides and contains none of the ingredients added to cigarettes, such as aluminum oxide, potassium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, polyvinyl acetate, and a hundred or so others, which make up approximately 10 percent of the smokable matter. During combustion, a cigarette emits some 4,000 substances, most of which are toxic. Some of these substances are even radioactive, making cigarettes the largest single source of radiation in the daily life of an average smoker. According to one study, the average smoker absorbs the equivalent of the radiation dosages from 250 chest X-rays per year. Cigarette smoke is directly implicated in more than 25 serious illnesses, including 17 forms of cancer. In the Amazon, on the other hand, tobacco is considered a remedy. The Ashaninca word for "healer", or "shaman", is sheripiari - literally, "the person who uses tobacco". The oldest Ashaninca men that I knew were all sheripiari. They were so old that they did not know their own age, which only there deeply wrinkled skin suggested, and they were remarkably alert and healthy.

Intrigued by these disparities, I looked through data banks for comparative studies between the toxicity of the Amazonian variety (Nicotiana rustica) and the variety used by the manufacturers of cigarettes, cigars, rolling tobacco, and pipe tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). I found nothing. The question, it seemd, had not been

pg 121

asked. I also looked for the studies on the cancer rate among shamans who use massive and regular doses of nicotine; again, nothing. So I decided to write to the main authority on the matter, Johannes Wilbert, author of the book Tobacco and shamanism in South America, to put my questions to him. He replied: "There is certainly evidence that Western tobacco products containmany different harmful agents which are probably not present in organically grown plants. I have not heard of shamans developing cancers but that may, of course, be a function of several things like lack of Western diagnosis, natural life span of ingigenous people, magico-religious restrictions of tobacco use in tribal societies, etc."

It seems clear that nicotine does not cause cancer, given that it is active in the brain and that cigarettes do not cause cancer in the brain, but in the lungs, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, rectum, kidneys, and bladder, the organs reached by the carcinogenic tars, which are also swallowed.

... there's more in the book and I highly recommend reading it.

A synopsis (with some direct quotes) of the chapters from the book can be read here ... www.enjoyperu.com/peru_travel_tours_info...r_the_jungle_tv.html

They can get a license to operate a vehicle at 16; Just join the military and shoot guns not routinely obtainable by Joe American, get a fishing license, too!

Coco wrote:
Young men and women are just not wise enough to make informed decision when it comes to these things, so they can be easily led by corporate advertizing, who will use any tactic to sell there wares.

Intense training programs especially for driving is needed. To many young people kill themselves and other's because they think they are invincible behind a wheel.

Joining the military is another 'cool' thing to do, since they've been playing video games designed around killing. I didn't mind playing them myself.

We as a society wouldn't make Meth freely available, or smack or cocaine, because they effect health.

While the pro­posal was today backed by health advo­cates and anti­smok­ing cam­paign­ers, retail­ers warned it will turn the island into a “nanny state”.

It will be worked into a nation wide ban on ciggies and thats a good thing imo.

Cigarettes made by big tobacco are poison, they are designed to kill you. Big tobacco knew about the effects of cigs way back in the 70's. My old man was on a flight over to europe and sat next to a bigwig, they had a discussion about it and the bigwig knew all about the effects of cigs, said to the old man "who'd smoke that, they'd have to be crazy" lol.