Health warning labels.

[Dave A]

You make a strong point, Insulin.

The answer probably lies in looking at the lifestyle of the people driving this sort of legislation.

[Marq]

This is a good point. I think it is also related to the tax inputs that each area generates and the source of the products.

It seems though that the pictures and warning messages don't really work anyway. I am not even sure the smoker sees the packet blurb. Once a new smoker is hooked he is more interested in the contents - as long as the outside conformed to a box to keep the stuff in and was the right colour for their brand....then away we go.

There does seem to be fewer smokers around though.....perhaps the war is being won.

[Graeme]

Oh yes - the war IS being won - when I started work there was an ashtray on every desk; as the years went by the number of ashtrays slowly started diminishing and 30 years later the "No Smoking" signs started to appear in those same offices. It is not game, set and match yet, but we're getting there. It is that first smoke as a teenager that is the culprit - a medical man once told me that niccotine is more addictive than heroin.

[insulin]

I don’t agree with war against smoking in the first place. Hardcore drugs is more lethal then smoking and secondly you can actually enslave someone with an hardcore drug addiction. However what of alcohol? See the problem with alcohol is that it alters your aggression and yes I agree not every alcoholic is aggressive but I have seen firsthand how a man hit his girlfriend that she ended up in hospital. The man got off with a warning from the police. “Girlfriend stupidly didn’t press any charges” Sad world...

See smokers and drinkers are easy targets for government they know where to find them and make them pay. Hardcore drugs is not so easy to find and our government is losing the war against drugs. So yes you don’t see smokers anymore because they smoke out of sight. Yet you can find an alcoholic racing down our public roads on Friday happily killing families along the way...

The point I am trying to make is: Pictures don’t control people... LAW controls people! And the LAW is only as strong as the GOVERNMENT that is enforcing it...

[Marq]

Quite Right.....Pictures on boxes is a pointless exercise when the government should be out there enforcing the law. The legal system is also to blame with their judges in the drunk tank, interpretation of the law being skewed and inability to even rope their own in. Sad state of affairs.

[insulin]

Again today I drove past a totally destroyed car with the “Speed Kills� massage on it. Now to put it blunt! I hate it when someone tries to be “in your face� because they think they have the right to do so.

Someone most probably died in that accident and now I must suffer by looking at it and I had nothing to do with the accident. Also “You killed me� Posters that you find all over the place. Normally the poster has a dead teenager’s face on it with the words “You killed me� written beneath it. How sh*t do I have to feel every day?

I would sacrifice myself in the worst possible way if I knew it will bring that dead teenager back. But it will not! My question is why don’t I see Roadblocks at night close to the drinking spots? Why don’t I see “WORKING speed camera’s and active policing to enforce the penalties and speed fines? Now they want to put more horrible pictures of dead or dying people as warning labels!

Have they ever questioned the psychology part of this move? I am left handed thus I use the right sight of my brain more. This means pictures, symbols, creative writing, video and sound are vividly recorded in my mind by default. I have no control over this. Now basically they are turning my mind into a nightmare recorder! Just because they think it will stop people from doing stuff.

[tec0]

Smoking kills Yes but drinking, driving, swimming eating and exercise if not done in moderation will also kill you. The health warnings on packets and now those horrible pictures will not help at all. What if I say when it comes to a smoker's mental health! Believe that!

Smoking can help a stressed person to calm down. One may think this is BS but nicotine can help with a mental health. When nicotine gets into your system

It gives you a short burst of dopamine! “Happy juice� Now Happy juice aka natural dopamine can stop a person from committing suicide. It also helps with depression and other mental health problems. But the miracle of smoking stops the body from making Monoamine “Sad juice� Now Monoamine breaks down dopamine “the stuff that makes you feel happy and good�

So leave the smokers alone! Those little bits of poison might actually be the only thing that keeps them going.