Worthless anger management class! I hate it so much! I spit on it!
Anti-smoker laws
So, they're introducing more stupid new anti-smoker laws. One of the changes is that shops will only be able to use one metre of space to display cigarettes.
Now, this might be something that comes as a surprise to non-smokers, but there are shitloads of brands of cigarettes and each brand has loads of varieties, some in several different sizes of packs. Not all shops stock all types. Smokers often use the display to work out whether the shop has your brand, and if so what it costs...
The laws change next Saturday. Normal cigarette displays are about 3 metres long and a metre high. That's what it takes to display all the various options. (You think that's a lot? Picture the last liquor barn you went to; how big it was and the fact that it didn't stock all the options, either.) In preparation for the crackdown, a lot of stores have closed the shutters on most of their display, leaving only a square metre visible.
The day before yesterday, I bought a pack. The girl spent about 20 seconds flipping shutters up and down to try to find the right type. That may not seem like a lot, but when it's X-men Eve and there are people lined up behind you, it seems like a lifetime.
The laws are also about what descriptive text cigarette manufacturers can use (that's stuff like "super-light", "ultra-mild", "extra-chunky", etc.) or more to the point, can't use. So, instead of smoking Horizon menthol 2s, I now smoke Horizon menthol yellow.
There's a problem with this: Every smoker knows that the side of the box is lying when it says that the smoke from each cigarette contains, on average, 2 mgs or less of tar -- people don't smoke the way smoking machines smoke, after all. But that doesn't mean those numbers are worthless; every smoker also knows that the numbers are reasonably relative; whatever the actual tar level is, a 2 gives less headspins than a 4, which gives less than an 8 and so on. Jebus help you if you usually smoke menthol 2s and you try a Camel non-filter (16+). Now, when Horizon call them menthol 2s, at least they're committing to something in the title. With the new 'yellows', sure they're 2s for now; but what about in a year or two when they want to rationalise their brand? Maybe they'll change 'yellow' to 4s and not tell anyone until we're all good and hooked at the higher tar (and higher nicotine) levels.
IN TODAY'S PAPER, I read that the Quit people don't think this is enough. The Courier Mail quotes Quit executive director Todd Harper as complaining about the changed packaging "Tobacco industry documents themselves state that red pack connote strong flavour, green packs connote coolness or menthol and white packs are suggestive of a low-tar cigarette... under no circumstances should" the cigarette industry "be allowed to (be) using evocative words, numbers or colours."
Get frickin' real, Toddy; the most evocative word on a cigarette pack is "cigarettes". Try banning that. Do you know why menthol packs are green? Have you ever seen mint? Some words and colours are common sense.
But anti-smoking activists are good to have around. For example, I'm sure non-smokers are now happy that the 4m around the entrances of commercial buildings are smoker-free. I want the amount of smoking to go down. I smoke, sure, but I also pay taxes. I have private health cover to pay for my own emphysema; but I don't want to have to pay a whole lot extra to pay for other people's illnesses. (The operative word is 'extra' - I'm happy to pay my share of the national health bill.)
It's just that the quit folks are like Libertarians; nice to have around, but you never want to follow their advice all the way through. Not if you think it's occasionally okay to smoke just because you want to and you live in a free country.
Another part of the change is that the money spent on cigarette purchases cannot go towards store loyalty programs. So no more using a pack of fags to top-up your shopping to the $30 required to get a petrol voucher. No more 1point per dollar at the local Foodworks*.
Get a cold, get on a watch-list
Another thing that the (American) Libertarians over at Reason get hot under the collar about is being forced to show their ID.
Especially for something like exercising their right to purchase cold and flu medicine when they have a cold and/or flu. In America, they make all kinds of Bill O'Rights arguments about how they shouldn't have to give up their freedom to remain anonymous while doing legal things.
Well; in most parts of Australia, we don't have a bill of rights. Which is why they can just bring in laws requiring ID to buy some Codral and no one can do much about the fact that we will all be just a little less free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man.
Shock, horror, I do recognise that the U.S. and Australia are different places. For the moment. But I'm pretty sure that here -- just like over there -- the majority of meth is being made by large-scale operations who don't require multiple purchases from chemists to get their precursor chemicals.
Footnote
* The best loyalty program (frequent flyer, Fly-buys, etc.) that we belong to is at our local Foodworks supermarket. You only get one point per dollar, which means we would've had to've spent $3,500 to get those remote controlled cars worth $35 at most, but that's not the point. We shop there all the time - although often it's just to get cigarettes...
The points add up and the total is printed at the bottom of each receipt and they have a 'gift case' where the 'prizes' are kept so you can see exactly what is there at any point in time: if you need a stabber-mixer, or a set of steak knives, or a present for someone at short notice, you can get it easily.
What I've written above doesn't really explain it. I think it comes down to this. There's useful stuff in that cabinet. We've cashed in our points at Foodworks, whereas our Fly-buys points just expire every month...
So, they're introducing more stupid new anti-smoker laws. One of the changes is that shops will only be able to use one metre of space to display cigarettes.
Now, this might be something that comes as a surprise to non-smokers, but there are shitloads of brands of cigarettes and each brand has loads of varieties, some in several different sizes of packs. Not all shops stock all types. Smokers often use the display to work out whether the shop has your brand, and if so what it costs...
The laws change next Saturday. Normal cigarette displays are about 3 metres long and a metre high. That's what it takes to display all the various options. (You think that's a lot? Picture the last liquor barn you went to; how big it was and the fact that it didn't stock all the options, either.) In preparation for the crackdown, a lot of stores have closed the shutters on most of their display, leaving only a square metre visible.
The day before yesterday, I bought a pack. The girl spent about 20 seconds flipping shutters up and down to try to find the right type. That may not seem like a lot, but when it's X-men Eve and there are people lined up behind you, it seems like a lifetime.
The laws are also about what descriptive text cigarette manufacturers can use (that's stuff like "super-light", "ultra-mild", "extra-chunky", etc.) or more to the point, can't use. So, instead of smoking Horizon menthol 2s, I now smoke Horizon menthol yellow.
There's a problem with this: Every smoker knows that the side of the box is lying when it says that the smoke from each cigarette contains, on average, 2 mgs or less of tar -- people don't smoke the way smoking machines smoke, after all. But that doesn't mean those numbers are worthless; every smoker also knows that the numbers are reasonably relative; whatever the actual tar level is, a 2 gives less headspins than a 4, which gives less than an 8 and so on. Jebus help you if you usually smoke menthol 2s and you try a Camel non-filter (16+). Now, when Horizon call them menthol 2s, at least they're committing to something in the title. With the new 'yellows', sure they're 2s for now; but what about in a year or two when they want to rationalise their brand? Maybe they'll change 'yellow' to 4s and not tell anyone until we're all good and hooked at the higher tar (and higher nicotine) levels.
IN TODAY'S PAPER, I read that the Quit people don't think this is enough. The Courier Mail quotes Quit executive director Todd Harper as complaining about the changed packaging "Tobacco industry documents themselves state that red pack connote strong flavour, green packs connote coolness or menthol and white packs are suggestive of a low-tar cigarette... under no circumstances should" the cigarette industry "be allowed to (be) using evocative words, numbers or colours."
Get frickin' real, Toddy; the most evocative word on a cigarette pack is "cigarettes". Try banning that. Do you know why menthol packs are green? Have you ever seen mint? Some words and colours are common sense.
But anti-smoking activists are good to have around. For example, I'm sure non-smokers are now happy that the 4m around the entrances of commercial buildings are smoker-free. I want the amount of smoking to go down. I smoke, sure, but I also pay taxes. I have private health cover to pay for my own emphysema; but I don't want to have to pay a whole lot extra to pay for other people's illnesses. (The operative word is 'extra' - I'm happy to pay my share of the national health bill.)
It's just that the quit folks are like Libertarians; nice to have around, but you never want to follow their advice all the way through. Not if you think it's occasionally okay to smoke just because you want to and you live in a free country.
Another part of the change is that the money spent on cigarette purchases cannot go towards store loyalty programs. So no more using a pack of fags to top-up your shopping to the $30 required to get a petrol voucher. No more 1point per dollar at the local Foodworks*.
Get a cold, get on a watch-list
Another thing that the (American) Libertarians over at Reason get hot under the collar about is being forced to show their ID.
Especially for something like exercising their right to purchase cold and flu medicine when they have a cold and/or flu. In America, they make all kinds of Bill O'Rights arguments about how they shouldn't have to give up their freedom to remain anonymous while doing legal things.
Well; in most parts of Australia, we don't have a bill of rights. Which is why they can just bring in laws requiring ID to buy some Codral and no one can do much about the fact that we will all be just a little less free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man.
Shock, horror, I do recognise that the U.S. and Australia are different places. For the moment. But I'm pretty sure that here -- just like over there -- the majority of meth is being made by large-scale operations who don't require multiple purchases from chemists to get their precursor chemicals.
Footnote
* The best loyalty program (frequent flyer, Fly-buys, etc.) that we belong to is at our local Foodworks supermarket. You only get one point per dollar, which means we would've had to've spent $3,500 to get those remote controlled cars worth $35 at most, but that's not the point. We shop there all the time - although often it's just to get cigarettes...
The points add up and the total is printed at the bottom of each receipt and they have a 'gift case' where the 'prizes' are kept so you can see exactly what is there at any point in time: if you need a stabber-mixer, or a set of steak knives, or a present for someone at short notice, you can get it easily.
What I've written above doesn't really explain it. I think it comes down to this. There's useful stuff in that cabinet. We've cashed in our points at Foodworks, whereas our Fly-buys points just expire every month...
posted by Jimbo | 8:22 am
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