One for the smokers

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Originally Posted by vnx205

On the other hand, there does seem to be an increasing amount of evidence that smoking greatly enhances your ability to turn a blind eye to scientific evidence about its effects on the smoker and on passive smokers. :p

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True dat!

Ex neighbour with emphysema and an oxy bottle n mask solved the problem re his coughing and gasping by smoking super light 1mg durries...........

I still chuckle when i think of that sort of logic.

Its a bit like Bong smokers versus Joint smokers, Dope is ok......... but bongs are bad........

Errr miss the point much? :D

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Originally Posted by VladTepes

Don't kid yourself this isn't about revenue. If it was truly out of concern for our health they'd simply make them illegal... oh but wait, the government just happens to collect ****LOADS of revenue on tobacco. People may be addicted to cigarettes but the government is addicted to tobacco revenue.

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Sorry Vlad, that just isn't true. The cost of smoking related illness far exceeds the revenue the government collect from taxing tobacco - has been that way for years now. The only reason smoking hasn't been outlawed, is that (1) - they know they can't just ban such an addictive product without massive social consequences, and (2) - it would be political suicide. Even though smokers only make up 17% of the population, it would be seen as the start of the end for eveything else that can/could harm the population. So, where would it end if you ban smokes...

Edit - just checked some figures out - in 04/05 tabacco revenue for the government was around $5.2 Billon. Hospital costs for tobacco related illness - $669 Million. Social cost $31 Billion (est). That figure include direct costs related to funerals, etc for the more than 15,500 people that died that year from smoking - over 42 per day.... more deaths than from ANY other cause in this country by miles. Taxing them out of existance may be the only way we can rid ourselves of these appalling figures.

A bit underweight ayee

I'm no longer a smoker I'm I agree the gov is addicted to the revenue from the darts. Having just returned from holidays and I'm a bit of a drinker I was blown away how cheap beer was in hawaii 12 tinnies $9.99 cheaper then 6 cans in Australia but we don't get ripped off tho. Yellow tail wine there about 4 bucks a bottle so it's shipped over there and sold cheaper then here. But taxing the arse hole out of Australians is better for our health what a ****ing load of ****!