Smoke and Mirrors

They always say 'once an addict, always an addict', and it's true.  I've given up smoking more times than I can remember, and though I've managed for about a year now, you can't ever be sure you won't crack.  If I didn't have one of those e-cigarette things - my iFag - I would probably be chaining away in a corner, coughing and loving every minute.

I did love smoking.  I don't miss it, but I really did love it.  I would count out my days in fags.  Although I wouldn't count the cigarettes themselves or I'd have proof that I was smoking too much.  A lot of the fun went out of it with the public smoking ban, it's true, and there are less things I miss about it than things I'm glad to be shot of.   I have the aforementioned iFag, which is a great thing to fall back on if you're an ex-smoker with a crap track record of staying off the things.  But it's still giving you nicotine; it's a safer alternative but it's not the same as actually giving up (which, if you hadn't heard, is actually quite hard.)  Especially when I'm with people I like who are smoking, I do sometimes feel... jealous.

Which is ridiculous.  The stupidest thing I ever did was taking up smoking; it only takes your body a few days to realise how absolutely ruinous smoking is to your health.  And when you get your taste-buds in working order again, and discover that cigarette smoke does smell a little bit, it's like a revelation.  And God - how much you dupe yourself psychologically.  I would sometimes feel acute pains in my chest if I had been smoking, drinking coffee and eating greasy food (which was quite often); but I'd always manage to find some reason for these pains where smoking half a pack of baccy a day didn't come into the equation. 

Non-smokers can see how stupid the smokers are in this respect, but because they lack the crucial element of empathy they tend to sound preachy and annoying and way too smug when pointing out the bleeding obvious.  The empathy is necessary because if you don't know how hard giving up is your advice won't be taken seriously.  It's like telling someone to give up eating, because you become so dependent on them smoking feels like a bodily function.  And ex-smokers, well - ex-smokers can either turn out to be worse in a 'Born Again' way, or end up writing self-indulgent blog posts like this one.

So, speaking of this blog post - where is it going?

Two things have attracted my attention over the last week; the first is the gradual institution of the new regulations which makes it illegal for shops to display the packages of tobacco products.  The second was finding out about the 'Plain Packaging' campaign, which presumably inspired the new regulations (check out their exciting site )

The gist of the Plain Packaging campaign is that they believe cigarette packaging is too attractive ("particularly to young people"), and that if cigarettes/tobacco packaging is plain, the health warnings will stand out more.  The reasoning behind it is that less people will start smoking at an early age if the packaging is less attractive.

I think this argument is flawed.  Not completely without logic, and its heart is in the right place, but I simply don't think that the reason most people start smoking is because of the packaging.  I didn't take up smoking because I was dazzled by the hypnotic allure of the packages.  I don't think that's the reason why many smokers start smoking.  I think most people start smoking because of other people - peer pressure, yes, but also the urge to impress or just doing what everyone around them is doing plays its part.  Smoking is still a cultural issue primarily, and the key to stopping people from starting is education.   You can change the designs in the corner shop, but it's no good concentrating on the way it's marketed.  Instead we should concentrate on peoples' perceptions of smoking.  It is a slow process, but smoking is so ingrained in our culture, there is no fast-track option.  The key to change the amount of smokers out there lies in making smoking socially unacceptable.  If it's a shameful thing to do, and something people are embarrassed about, they won't take it up.  While people are still happy to walk down the street with one on the go, other people, if they're so inclined will be happy to start.

Gizza kiss.

This dummy box the Australian government are planning to introduce at the end of the year is pretty gruesome, it's true.  It's a shock tactic - it's a graphic image that gives you a jolt the first time you see it.

But a shock tactic by definition can only work once.  People will become used to it each time they see it, and if people are smokers, or work in shops that sell tobacco, or know people who smoke, its effect will last less than a month.  If you want to put people off smoking I actually think it's less effective to do this in the long run than to put them in an actual plain white box that says 'FAGS'.

Because when you smoke, you don't really care about the outside of the box/pouch, but what's inside them.  I remember when they made the warnings much bigger, and then later when graphic pictures of tumours and blackened lungs were emblazoned across the packs.  Not once did it stop me, because that self-deluding part of my mind simply blanked it out.  Being an addict makes you very good at being wilfully blind.  If  I still smoked, and they started selling fags in boxes shaped like a coffin or something, I would in all probability still buy them.  If the warnings said 'You Are An Idiot - You Are Stinking And Dying In A Hell Of Your Own Making', I would have shrugged and sparked up.  Because you know all that stuff already, if you've made it as far as buying the pack which has the warning on it you've probably already made up your mind. 

And if someone doesn't smoke but is about to start, it's because they like the idea of cigarettes, or the look of cigarette smoking, not because how the box looks of how it's sold.  The Plain Packaging campaign says "Support Plain Packaging and Save Our Children," and I still can't decide whether I think that's a wildly optimistic line or just a slightly patronising.

I'm not arguing that the packaging should remain - in fact I agree that the packaging should be changed.  I think people should be allowed to smoke if they want to while it's still legally available, but if you want to make it marginally more irritating for smokers and shopkeepers to buy and sell it, whatever - have a blast. 

But I think rather too much emphasis has been put on this being a way of reducing the amount of people who smoke.  (Are they even that enticing anyway?  I think most cigarette packaging is pretty dull.)  It's a purely cosmetic change, something that tweaks what already exists rather than changing the way things are.  Change the packaging, hide it behind cupboards in shops - by all means,  but also recognise that this is just a way of brushing something under the carpet.  At the end of the day, that tobacco is still going to be sold in significant amounts.  I think to really do something that makes a difference, a much bolder move has to be made, and I don't see that happening for at least another generation.