You’ve got to be kidding me?
In a recent trading standards exercise in Cumbria, UK, just under 10% of shops tested sold a child cigarettes. However, Trading Standards claim to be “pleased the majority of off-licenses and shops, had passed the test.”
How low have our expectations sunk in order for us to be “pleased” that only 10% of shops that were tested failed. Is this the same reaction with which we might greet news that merely 10% of our street corners are occupied by crack cocaine and heroin pushers, or that just 10% of houses in our street get burgled, or that just under 10% of people coming home from work get mugged each evening? All the latter examples are fictitious of course – it’s a shame that the Trading Standards story is not.
Having said that – most youngsters are more than capable of obtaining anything from crack cocaine to heroin these days, regardless of where they live, so one wonders how much of a challenge obtaining cigarettes presents them anyway. Equally one wonders whether the proposed banning of colours and branding on cigarette packs will prove remotely useful. I suspect that the tobacco industry will find elegant solutions to overcome that in the same way they have tended to for decades. If anyone hadn’t noticed, in spite of decades of apparently “successful” anti-tobacco action by so called experts, smoking amongst youngsters is still on the increase.Read about the Trading Standards story here