Motives:
For one thing,
smoking kills. This is a fact. Smoking causes
cancer,
heart disease and fetal injury. From a humanitarian viewpoint, smoking hurts people and should be discouraged wherever possible..
In this country (the UK) the Health Service is paid for by the whole population rather than through individual health insurance. Everyone pays for the treatment of self-inflicted, smoke-related illness.
The current solutions don't work
Several approaches have already been tried. As with
petrol (which is more the case in the UK, where fuel taxes are far higher than for our
merkin cousins)
tax has been pushed up and up, and yet people are not put off by the high prices. Nor do the health warnings make any difference. A stronger, more radical approach is needed,
The plan
This may seem a bit
harsh to begin with, but bear with me. I propose that one in every <insert large number here> cigarettes should contain a quantity of a fast acting,deadly
poison such as
arsenic. Each packet should bear a large red label,
"
WARNING! This pack has a 1 in
n chance of killing you outright.
You have been warned.".
Benefits
- People might think more carefully about the dangers of smoking if the danger was tangible and immediate. Thoughts of "Oh well, if I get cancer it won't be until I'm old. I'll deal with it then" would be replaced with "holy shit, this could actually kill me right now!"
Incredibly, this threat could well save many more lives than it takes.
- There would be fewer ill smokers lingering in hospital wards, reducing the burden on the rest of the population. Overcrowding would be less of a problem too.
Drawbacks
- The country would miss out on LARGE quantities of tax revenue.
- A few dead people who choose to take the risk.
This <large number> of which I speak needs defining. 1 in 100 is probably too high a ratio to be accepted by the
press and the people. Equally 1 in a billion is psychologically too low a risk to be an effective deterrant. I would suggest the same ratio as any regional or national lottery. For example, the UK's
National Lottery gives you a 1 in 14000000 chance of winning per entry. I would suggest that
smoking a fag should give the same chance of
instant death.
Generally, this would be a cheap and effective method of reducing the number of smokers. Provided with enough advance warning, people would know the risks and decide for themselves.