Imane Kurdi Not content with having upheld the world's toughest anti-tobacco packaging legislation, an Australian state has decided to take it one step further and propose a ban on selling tobacco products to people born after the year 2000, ever. It is just a proposal but the upper house of parliament in Tasmania unanimously passed a motion to explore such a ban. The idea is that a whole generation would grow up never having known cigarettes and, so the hope goes, the habit would eventually die out. A week earlier Australia's High Court dismissed a challenge by tobacco companies against a law coming into effect next December which will require cigarettes to be sold in identical olive green packets with graphic images of smoking-related diseases and no logo, just the name of the brand in small print. Australia is the first country that has passed plain packaging legislation but other countries are planning on following suit. Now I am all in favor of banning smoking in public places and government offices — as Saudi Arabia recently did and as is the case now in most of the developed world — but that is taking it a step too far. The idea of banning smoking outright for a new generation is not only draconian but utopian. Any country that has ever tried to ban a habit that is harmful but pleasurable knows that making it illegal just creates a black market. It may deter a small minority, but mainly it pushes it underground and makes it more attractive, gives it added zest. Ditto for the packaging rule. It strikes me that all those people who are virulent anti-smoking campaigners don't understand addiction. It takes more than a horrible image of a mouth ulcer to deter someone from buying a packet of cigarettes. It will make smoking less glamourous the argument goes — again, this is an argument from people who don't get glamour. What making cigarette packets all look more or less the same will do is kill branding and make it easier to make counterfeit cigarettes. Smokers may start to care less whether they smoke Marlboro or Winston but they will continue to smoke none the less. Perhaps one or two may get scared off by the images, but I'll wager they'll start to use those fancy cigarette cases that were once so chic. Smoking may kill you but it is legal. There is a line between discouraging smoking, protecting non-smokers from second-hand smoke and taking away people's rights to choose how they live their lives. If people know the risks associated with smoking and still want to smoke, they have a right to do so, just so long as they don't harm anyone else in the process. It is all about personal responsibility and choice. The problem with smoking at the office or at an airport or in a cafe is that you expose others to your second-hand smoke. The fact that it was allowed for so long — and I am old enough to remember the horror of people smoking in airplanes — is shocking. It is entirely right that people should not smoke in places where non-smokers will breathe their smoke. There is too the issue of people minimizing the effect of smoking on health. You know the argument, how many smokers shrug their shoulders and tell you that they had a relative who never smoked yet died of lung cancer, heart disease or an other smoking-related disease? Or they tell you that everything gives you cancer, from microwaves to cellphones, so they'd rather smoke if you don't mind. Or the shisha smoker who tells you it's just fruit or that the water clears out all the toxins? Clearly there is a need for proper campaigns to inform people of the full risks associated with smoking but once they are fully aware of the risks surely it is their call whether or not to smoke? The truth is many smokers will tell you they would rather live a short but happy life — and sadly their definition of happy seems to hinge on being a smoker — than a long but boring life. Those smokers will not be deterred, period. Others would like to quit but don't have the will-power, and here once again there is more that can be done in making available programs to help smokers kick the habit. We must be careful not to make pariahs out of smokers. Anti-smoking programs should focus on protecting non-smokers and enabling smokers to smoke less or not at all. If people find it pleasurable to smoke a shisha at the end of a long day, we should let them make that choice. Life is made of balance, we all have habits that are bad for us, some of us more than others, only by taking a tolerant but informed approach can we genuinely help people move towards healthier lifestyles. Saudi Arabia is currently the world's 4th largest importer of tobacco, clearly that is something that must change, and the recent laws banning smoking in public places will help. Just think six million Saudis spend an estimated 30 million riyals on cigarettes a day, yes a day! Can you imagine what could be done with that money! — Imane Kurdi is a Saudi writer on European affairs. She can be reached at [email protected]
