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Cigarettes up by 3 yen a fag


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As a reformed smulker, I submit that the cigarette is the most insidious, and most significant, threat to the health of the world's population ever invented (with the possible exception of the gas chamber popularised by one A. Hitler) and should be banned totally.

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I once read a book that said 'never trust fat people or smokers' because they think short term rather than long term (ie. they put short term needs for a fag/food ahead of long term health benefits). He then extended this to conclude that fat people/smokers are therefore more likely to doublecross you or sell you out, because they will go for short term gain over long term benefits of friendship/business partnership with you. The book was 'game theory at work' if anyones interested.

 

Cigarettes should cost 10,000yen for one, or they should be totally banned from every public place and from open spaces. You should only be allowed them in your own home, providing you don't have children. It sickens me when I see people smoking in the car with their kids on there.

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That must be a good read 'cos at work I have come across some fat people and they are the ones that I really do not trust. They promise things that they can't deliver and they actually try to pull the wool. Pretty sad considering they move slower than most.

 

Fag smokers should be made to pay for their own healthcare and those that they affect. Why should tax payers be forced to support their habit?

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Originally Posted By: thursday
Why should tax payers be forced to support their habit?

Not that I disagree with the general proposals here...but this statement concerns me.
Smokers are generally taxpayers too, and the tax on ciggies in Oz is such that there is a massive taxation revenue from ciggie sales that is supposed to be directed back into programmes to reduce smoking and smoking related costs (obviously not enough to cover the medical care of ALL of the smokers though!).

Tax the cig's higher and higher and higher and keep banning it from public places. My biggest gripe is smokers gathering along all the exits and pathways in front of airports - drives me bonkers!!

I agree with you JA - it is the most horridly insidious addictive nasty out there. A high school buddy gave me a pack of cig's for my 13th birthday and it took me until I was 30 years old to kick the nasty habit for good. Sometimes I thought I had it licked - a whole year once - and then Id be at a party having a few drinks and an old smoking buddy would offer me one and away we would go again! I have been off them for almost 10 yrs now, hate the stink, remember how I aways got chest infections and how food lost it's taste - but despite all that I STILL get the nicotine craving every now and again....nasty nasty nasty.

Tax the beejeezus out of them until they become such a rarely used item as can be made illegal.
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I want to change my vote. I just hit do it without actually reading the other options. 'Increase it by more' sounds good to me.

 

Actually, I'm gonna rant a bit. What's with those marketing campaigns you see at combinis and vending machines where they're so obviously deliberately targeting young teenagers, especially teenage girls?! (At the moment I'm thinking of those rasberry menthol 10 - packs with the cute young trendy looking white chick on huge posters everywhere). With all of this dramatic coverage of evil Uni kids smoking pot, I find the cigarette thing all the more annoying. What a backward country.

 

(Sorry. Good to get that out of my system. Phew.)

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Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver
I was told that the reason they are so cheap here is that the government holds shares in Japan Tobacco

veryshocked
Surely that would be contradictory to health policy....
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Its 'true'

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Tobacco

 

Quote:

It was two-thirds owned by the Japanese Ministry of Finance until June 2004, and the Japanese government share is presently 50%. JT International (JTI), acquired in 1999 from R.J. Reynolds, is an operating division of Japan Tobacco Inc., handling the international production, marketing and sales of the group's cigarette brands. It sells Camel, Salem, and Winston brands outside the USA.

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One of things I love about living in Japan is that I can smoke without being viewed as some evil masochistic fool. I only took up smoking when I came to live in Japan because primarily it's so damned cheap.

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Originally Posted By: Go Native
I only took up smoking when I came to live in Japan because primarily it's so damned cheap.

slap




I have to admit to having a slight division in my own feelings on the topic. On one hand I think we should be making it more and more expensive and educating people to NOT smoke. Kids should be protected from being sealed into moving gas chambers on 4 wheels....but where do you draw the line?

On the topic of should tax be raised on cigarettes I can answer without any internal dialogue - YES!

But I had a discussion with the WA Health Minister last week about new laws being pushed to prevent smoking in any food service area. Sounds good in theory... the majority of people are not keen to have to sniff at other peoples 2nd hand smoke while they dine out... Bars have banned smoking inside - thats great it protects the workers health. Now picture this -any given mining town and a whole bunch of mine workers knocked off for a Friday evening head down to the local. They take up residence in the beer garden where they can smoke. They drink, they smoke...and then they get a bit hungry... so they order a hamburger and fries, or a big greasy plate of nacho's. Now the fact that these guys are about to eat is a good thing. Leaving them without easy access to food is an express path to serious intoxication! Food is good. Why do you think we get the munchies? Food is good. Under the newly proposed laws they can not be served the food in the smoking area. Now THAT is stupid. If it is a smoking area and staff do not have to STAY within it (just deliver and go) then I think banning food service is stupid and regressive.
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Originally Posted By: SG
make it 1000 yen or more pack, at the very least.


Triple the price in one hit? I doubt that would go down well. On the whole the Japanese don't seem to consider smoking to be the great evil that so many of you foreginers do.

Supposedly smoking 1 pack a day increases the risk of lung cancer by 10-15 times the normal rate. The normal rate of lung cancer for those who've never smoked is something like 14-17 deaths per 100,000 people. So the risk of getting lung cancer goes from 0.02% to about 0.26% if you smoke a pack a day. Still mighty small odds in my book. I'm far, far more likely to die in a car crash or skiing accident or a whole range of other more likely factors. Hell I like living on the edge biggrin
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Attitudes to smoking are a lot more relaxed in Japan than in most other developed countries, and I have to say, I think that is a lot to do with the fact that the Japanese government owns a significant part of JT. Back in England, there are very graphic anti-smoking campaigns on the TV, smoking advertising is completely banned, and you cant smoke inside any public building. Tax on tobacco is so high, it costs over 1000 yen a pack, and shops hardly make anything on that. In Japan, there is none of that (afaik) - the anti-smoking campaigns here consist of hillarious "polite smoking" advertisements (the green and white ones). In fact, these advertisements, sponsored by JT, are actually PRO-smoking, for the following reasons : they are trying to encourage those who smoke not to bother people who dont, for example by walking in crowded areas whilst smoking, littering cigarette butts, or allowing their smoke to bother others - they want to do this, to alleviate pressure from anti-smoking interests, and also having seen what has happenned in the states/europe re stringent regulations on smoking in public. Another thing Ive seen in Japan, is huge campaigns in places where young people go, like in clubs such as Womb or Ageha, where a bunch of beautiful young girls dressed in tiny PVC outfits will distribute packs of cigarettes for the brand they're promoting (I think the deal is, you give them your almost empty pack of a different brand and they give you a full pack of their brand). If this happened in the UK, there would be a public outcry! It simply would not be allowed to happen! Another reason smoking is so common here, is because smokers in the workplace are permitted to go for regular "fag breaks". You can also smoke pretty much anywhere here, even on the shinkansen, and most annoyingly, in most restaurants, there is a smoking area - thats really not nice for people who dont smoke, who want to enjoy a meal. Anyway, people can do what they want, as far as Im concerned. You know what it does to you, you are a responsible adult, you make your own decisions. However, certainly in the UK, where healthcare is publicly funded, I think smokers should be taxed highly. Id add junk foods to that as well.

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Originally Posted By: Go Native
Supposedly smoking 1 pack a day increases the risk of lung cancer by 10-15 times the normal rate. The normal rate of lung cancer for those who've never smoked is something like 14-17 deaths per 100,000 people. So the risk of getting lung cancer goes from 0.02% to about 0.26% if you smoke a pack a day. Still mighty small odds in my book.


But if you are one if the 14 in 100,000 thenthe incidence is 100% If it kills you, you are dead. If you don't want that, minimise the risks! Simple! Quit and you run a sigificant risk of living longer - my sort of odds!
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Originally Posted By: Gary
. You can also smoke pretty much anywhere here, even on the shinkansen


Isn't there a designated smoking car? I've never seen smoking on Shinkansen, I'm sure I've seen no smoking signs in the cars. If there is smoking, I'd imagine that its in designated cars, the same way it used to be on UK trains a few years ago
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Originally Posted By: JA
But if you are one if the 14 in 100,000 then the incidence is 100% If it kills you, you are dead. If you don't want that, minimise the risks! Simple! Quit and you run a sigificant risk of living longer - my sort of odds!


Of course I could stop skiing because there's a hell of a lot higher risk of me dying from that, or maybe I should stop driving because the risk of dying doing that is also pretty damn high. Maybe I should never do mountaineering or rock climbing ever again because they are for sure very risky sports. I was thinking of trying ice climbing this winter but hey that's incredibly risky as well!

My point here is that we all do things that are risky in life. For some reason though it seems the small risk I have of contracting cancers or any of the other risks involved with smoking I should take more seriously than the other risks I take in my life?

I enjoy smoking. Sure there's a risk involved but I can live with that. Just like I can live with the risk I take skiing through the trees at Niseko. I get enjoyment out of both so why should I stop either?
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