Thursday 5 June 2014

Plain Packaging Leads To RISE In Smoking Rates

Following on from yesterday's revelations in The Sun that criminal gangs are thrilled at the prospect of the extra profits they will be earning, any UK politician still in favour of plain packaging should be sent for immediate psychiatric evaluation after this from The Australian:
LABOR'S nanny state push to kill off the country’s addiction to cigarettes with plain packaging has backfired, with new sales figures showing tobacco consumption growing during the first full year of the new laws. 
Eighteen months after the previous government’s laws came into force, new data, obtained by The Australian, shows that tobacco sales volumes increased by 59 million “sticks”, or individual cigarettes or their roll-your-own equivalents last year.
Earth to the Westminster Bubble ... just quietly drop the idea and save yourself some embarrassment, eh?


18 comments:

LOL dongs said...

Can't wait to hear how Simple Simon tries to spin his way out of this one .....

smiffy01 said...

I would imagine that "Simple Simon" in this country will be absolutely delighted and will probably send the other Simple Simon down under a personal copy of the next blog! :)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

He knew very well that plain packaging would have no effect whatsoever, hence why he got his excuses in early last year. Not sure he was expecting increased consumption though.


I expect he'll come out with something along the lines of it just being a transition figure because retailers threw out old stock. It doesn't wash though, 59 million is a lot of sticks in a country with a comparatively smaller population than here. It's almost three extra cigarettes for every man woman and child in the country!

Junican said...

"....new sales figures....." which implies that the the tobacco products involved are 'official. They need to add in also the 'Manchester' stuff and chop chop.

Of course, Chapman et al will be whispering in the health ministers ear that PP will work eventually - say in 20 years time. Never mind the cost, just keep upping the anti - bound to work eventually.

What the.... said...

Can’t read full article in the Australian (paywall).

It needs to be remembered that there have been massive [extortionate]
hikes in tax on tobacco and with more planned ahead. There are also two
automatic tax hikes per year (it saves buffoon politicians the embarrassment of publicly announcing these regular hikes). These auto tax hikes used to be aligned to the consumer price index. But even this wasn’t enough for the political con men. The auto hikes have recently been aligned to average male earnings instead which yields a higher rate. If official tobacco consumption had gone/goes down it would be difficult to tease out PP and tax effects. Then there’s the major issue of a contraband market which never figures in Tobacco Control “reasoning”.

Australia has also instituted all manner of smoking bans that are becoming progressively more draconian. Australia has been a good little drone implementing far more antismoking policy that even the WHO currently demands. So for the official consumption to have increased is a fair and square whack (BAM!) right between the eyes of these Public Health
fraudster/meddler racketeers. They’ve been shown….. again…. to not know what they’re talking about (I’m being kind here. They’re outright self-serving pathological liars). Simple Simon Crapman and his Public Health buddies will be scrambling to discredit the consumption figure: Someone’s obviously hit the wrong calculator button. They might completely disregard it. Or Crapman might even turn it on its head claiming that it’s all the more reason to increase funding for Tobacco Control in the eternal vigilance (cue string quartet) against the “evil” weed. That’s right. Let’s do more of the same – more tax, more bans, more denormalization.

I have a feeling that there are more and more in Australia that have stopped listening to these Public Health fraudster nut cases. And it
wouldn’t be too soon. Tobacco Control has increased the misery of living, has manufactured global-scale nocebo effects, has produced social discord galore, and is rapaciously fleecing smokers.

What the.... said...

Long-time Public Health favourites from Donkey Publishing.

What the.... said...

And right on cue it’s the Daubster, Crapman’s donkey twin, wheeled in to contain the fallout.

(Excerpts)

“However, Australian Council on Smoking and Health president Professor Mike Daube told ABC NewsRadio he believes the article, based on a report by industry monitor InfoView, is wrong.
"This is the typical approach taken by the tobacco industry. They leak a report to a friendly journalist, with a history of opposing what he describes as the 'nanny state', and then they put it on the front page and it gets some legs," he said.”
"So, I think what you are seeing is a good, old-fashioned tobacco industry
beat-up."
Professor Daube said the tobacco industry is keen to discredit plain packaging because other countries are considering the introduction of similar legislation.
He questioned why tobacco companies were opposed to plain packaging
internationally, if it appeared to lead to increased cigarette sales.
Professor Daube said he anticipates a decline in cigarette sales in coming years, but said it was too soon to determine whether or not the laws had proven successful.
"Of course the impact of plain packaging is always going to be long term," he said.
"You're looking at complex issues such as population increase and of course artificially high cigarette sales or reported sales during 2013 because of inventory changes."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-06/anti-smoking-advocate-rejects-cigarette-sales-increase-report/5505210

What the.... said...

With beads of perspiration forming on his forehead....

harleyrider1778 said...

Cigarette sales increase report a tobacco industry 'beat-up', anti-smoking advocate says

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-06/anti-smoking-advocate-rejects-cigarette-sales-increase-report/5505210

What the.... said...

It’s interesting that the Tobacco Control unintelligentsia, i.e., the Daubster, has sprung into immediate action on this “increased sales” story to bring the “right” perspective, to “right” a “wrong” [I feel a song coming on].

Only last weekend an Australian newspaper ran this story:

“Third-hand smoke - residue on walls, furniture and car interiors -
more harmful than previously thought”


http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/thirdhand-smoke-residue-on-walls-furniture-and-car-interiors-more-harmful-than-previously-thought/story-fnihsrf2-1226937916055

“The Cancer Council Queensland will today release research showing
third-hand smoke poses a serious health threat to children and could cause
cancer.”


Well, where’s the research? Why haven’t they referred to it in the article?
They’re going to provide it later today? Sure. Don’t hold your breath: There is no such research. It’s all agenda-driven inflammatory blather, i.e., a lie.

And then there’s this “gem”:

“Research shows many of the more than 4000 chemicals in second-hand smoke linger long after cigarettes are put out, sticking to surfaces and damaging human DNA in a way that can potentially cause cancer,’’ Cancer Council Queensland spokeswoman Katie Clift said.

That’s also a straight out highly-inflammatory lie. “Many of the 4000 chemicals”? There have been just a handful of studies on so-called “thirdhand smoke” that have been conducted by antismokers. Since we’re dealing with barely detectable trace levels, only one (not many of the 4000) chemical (nicotine) has been detected in the home that can also come from sources other than tobacco smoke. And the studies in question make no claims concerning “health issues”. Thirdhand smoke “danger” is a conjured nonsense and Clift is adding to the derangement. The antismoking zealots are used to getting away with lying and their lies just get bigger and bigger. This is an expanding madness.

And if we check out the Cancer Council Queensland website, it hasn’t since
released any “new research”. There’s just a load of inflammatory propaganda:
http://www.cancerqld.org.au/page/news/third-hand_smoke_a_threat_to_queensland_kids/

Such baseless claims are promoting nocebo effects, i.e., mental dysfunction, in the gullible. It's an assault on mental health. Surely the Tobacco Control team was all over this, quickly appearing in the media to correct the nonsense? Hopefully as quickly as its response to the “increased sales” story? Well, this is indeed a shock. There was not a peep from the “benevolent” ones: They were peep-less.

John Davidson Jr said...

BS Alert: The 'third-hand smoke' hoax

http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-louisville/bs-alert-the-third-hand-smoke-hoax

The thirdhand smoke scam

http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2010/02/thirdhand-smoke-scam.html

What the.... said...

The "official line" on the “increased sales” from The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/06/labor-rejects-tobacco-industry-claim-of-plain-packaging-policy-failure

http://www.theguardian.com/society/datablog/2014/jun/06/is-smoking-increasing-in-australia?commentpage=1

JonathanBagley said...

There's an article in the Daily Mail.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

All that action and still an increase in sticks sold! They can cry conspiracy all they like, but it's clear their policies are useless. :)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Just seen it myself.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2650339/59-million-cigarettes-sold-year-plain-packaging.html

John Davidson Jr said...

This just out from the Australian cancer council. It appears the Nazis are very scared of a repeal in Australia on plain packs!

The selection of figures reported in today's The Australian newspaper, taken from the NSW population health survey, are out of context, and smoking rates across the population should be observed by long-term trends - which show a significant decline.

From 2002 to 2011 the smoking rates in NSW declined significantly from 22.5 per cent to 14.7 per cent. The 2013 smoking rate of 16.4 per cent does not reflect an actual increase in the number of smokers since 2011, but a change in how the survey was conducted, which included surveying using mobile phones for the first time. This increased the number of younger people and males in the surveys, both groups with relatively higher smoking rates. This impacted on the overall reported rate for smoking. The apparent increase is an artefact of data collection, and was not caused or attributable to the introduction of plain packaging or other tobacco control policy measures.

Rigorous scientific studies have indicated that plain packaging, in addition to tax increases on the price of cigarettes are effective measures, and recommended by the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

In January this year, a study by the Cancer Institute NSW published in the Medical Journal of Australia showed a 78 per cent increase in calls to the Quitline associated with the introduction of plain packaging. Further research by the Cancer Institute NSW from April 2014 reported that since the latest tax on cigarettes in December 2013, there has been a 17 per cent rise in the number of NSW smokers who have tried or thought about quitting as a result of the increasing price of cigarettes.

"The public should treat with great scepticism information from a report commissioned by and for the tobacco industry, especially one that has not been made available in its entirety. We need to see published, per capita rates for long-term trends from this or any other report, otherwise we risk seeing a distorted and incomplete picture.

"Taking data and statistics out of context distorts the reality of what are great gains in tobacco control as a result of many different policy and education initiatives," says Professor David Currow, Chief Cancer Officer and CEO of the Cancer Institute NSW.


http://www.cancerinstitute.org.au/news-events/latest-news/world%E2%80%99s-toughest-anti-smoking-laws-are-working-the-complete-picture-(1)

truckerlyn said...

Pot, Kettle, Black, comes to mind when reading this! Perhaps the anti smoking brigade should lead by example and publish ALL their data, statistics, 'rigorous' 'scientific' studies, etc, etc!!!

Junican said...

It looks as though the tobacco control industry is throwing in every straw man argument that it can think of in an effort to downplay THE FACTS. The facts are that the simple act of counting sales volumes has shown an increase. That is all there is to it. Are the sales volume figures correct, or are they not? We should note that Daube etc do not seem to have questioned the facts.