Dreams of a Smoke-free Generation? More Like ‘Generation: Tax Slave’

The UK Government has a “bold ambition” for a smoke-free generation. They have a plan…apparently. Who wins? The Treasury, Big Pharma, and Big Tobacco

Dreams of a Smoke-free Generation? More Like ‘Generation: Tax Slave’

The UK Government has a “bold ambition” for a smoke-free generation. They have a plan…. …..apparently. From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide CEO & Senior Therapist, Allen Carr’s Easyway

The combined ‘wisdom’ of Public Health England and Action on Smoking & Health (ASH), unsurprisingly assisted by the peddlers & pushers of nicotine, Big Pharma and Big Tobacco, has decreed that as much weight as possible should be applied to moving smokers from smoking cigarettes to using e-cigarettes. At any cost.

If I sound angry – it’s because I am!

At the launch, today – the buzzy, groovy, soundbite portraying an aspirational ambition for a “smoke-free generation” was churned out to the media. If I sound angry – it’s because I am. The people behind this have a smug self-assurance – presenting e-cigarettes as a relatively harmless panacea for the smoking problem. In fact, they’re taking a huge ‘punt’. With very little known about the long-term damage caused by vaping and without any real grasp of the consequences of allowing and encouraging the widespread use of a highly addictive toxic product there is very little about which they can be certain.

Who wins?

Of course, there are some things about which we can be certain. Who wins? Who has most to gain from encouraging a huge chunk of the population to remain addicted to a highly taxable, highly profitable drug? Big Tobacco and Big Pharma – who will continue to supply and profit from the poor addicts. And the Government, who wish to protect the £9 billion profit it makes from nicotine addiction every year. NINE BILLION POUNDS. EVERY YEAR. That’s what left when you deduct the cost of treating smoking related diseases from the tax raised on nicotine sales.

The message to our kids? “Don’t smoke – vape instead”

The targeted ‘taxable population’ is not just restricted to current smokers – but includes our children as well. There is no doubt in my mind that within a few years there will be “Don’t smoke – vape instead” messages dished out to our kids under the guise of ‘health education/advice’. Not only will this encourage some of the audience, who otherwise might never have been interested to ‘give it a go’, but is surely bound to encourage naturally rebellious adolescents, to do the complete opposite of the ‘establishment’s’ message…and smoke. That’s not a punt. We have generations of evidence that suggests that will be the case.

Employers told to allow vaping in the workplace

The fact that most people who use e-cigarettes also smoke and the fact that evidence is emerging that vaping acts as a gateway to smoking for youngsters is being ignored by the wise ladies and gentlemen of the Government, Action on Smoking & Health, and Public Health England. Not content with all the above, these people are actually encouraging employers to allow employees to vape in the workplace.

I’m the most tolerant former smoker on the planet. I used to smoke 80-a-day and never, ever object to people smoking around me. I was the worse. But since the smoking ban we’ve all quickly become blissfully appreciative of how gorgeous it is to be in smoke-free places – especially pubs, bars, restaurants, and workplaces. Last weekend there was something extraordinarily weird about being stood next to a man in a sports bar while he was vaping. His plumes of sickly-sweet smelling ‘vape-cloud’ relentlessly fogging my view of the cricket match showing on the TV, as he puffed it out over me and anyone else within his ‘splash zone’. Does that sound like progress to anyone? Can you seriously imagine any responsible, considerate employer wanting that kind of situation playing out in their offices or on their factory floors?

Freedom is best

The answer to the ‘smoking problem’ is simple. Help smokers to stop rather than corralling them, and funnelling their children, into a lifetime addiction that controls their lives, costs them a fortune, and damages their health.

Read more about ‘How to Stop Smoking’

Read more about ‘How to Stop Vaping’

Read The Sun Newspaper Story

Read The Telegraph Newspaper Story

Read The Mirror Newspaper Story

From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide CEO & Senior Therapist, Allen Carr’s Easyway

#QuitSmoking #StopSmoking #BeAddictionFree #AllenCarr #QuitVaping #StopVaping