General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Plain cigarette packaging passes in Australia. [View all]Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The cigarette manufacturers were still able to effectively market their products, and the cigarette ad ban did have an effect on other things. Liquor distributors imposed a self TV ad ban on themselves because they knew if they didn't the government would go after them as well. The current mayor of NYC is advocating a ban on large soft drinks and he has his supporters, including right here on DU. So absolutely it is a slippery slope issue. Once you go down the road of social engineering, there is no end to it until someone takes a civil libertarian stand.
I take a more common sense approach to such things. If you're trying to mitigate a problem, the smartest approach is to attack the problem itself rather than the symptoms. I'm all for banning smoking in the workplace or any other inside location where other people have to be which includes the homes of people with kids. However, regardless of how stupid it is I'm against telling other people what they can do with their own bag of meat so long as it isn't harming anyone else. Other than very infrequent pipesmoking, I'm not a smoker and I've never had a use for cigarettes. I'm not going to tell someone else they can't and neither am I going to support my government doing it by proxy, because inevitably the day will come when the government will come after my vices. I know this because they already have and they will continue to do so as long as society allows them.