Today is World No Tobacco Day, an initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce the appeal of smoking by encouraging governments all over the world to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. In this regard, Australia is considered to be a world leader. But early figures suggests that the introduction of plain packaging of cigarettes has not had the desired effect.
All a smoker needs to circumvent plain packaging is a plastic cigarette case, which you can pick up from any tobacconist for less than $8. Simply get into the habit of transferring the contents of your cigarette packet to a cigarette case and the impact of plain packaging is lost on you forever!
According to British American Tobacco Australasia (BATA) early figures show that the introduction of plain packaging has seen no changes to the trend in legal tobacco sales in Australia.
Earlier this week BATA spokesman Scott McIntyre said: “There has been no initial impact on legal tobacco sales in the first six months due to plain packaging. The steady decline we’ve seen in the last decade has continued at the same rate it was prior to 1 December last year and we don’t expect that to change.”
Sales of cigarettes may not have declined but I’m guessing sales of plastic cigarette cases have gone through the roof! I have blue one which holds 30 cigarettes. I also have a red one and a very stylish animal print cigarette case which holds 20 cigarettes.
I use a cigarette case because:
a)I really hate being told what to do; and
b)Nothing annoys me more than being told what I already know to be true. I know smoking is hazardous to my health.
Tell me something I don’t know on this World No Tobacco Day like: Why do I continue to smoke cigarettes? and Why is there no rehab or other practical assistance for smokers?