posted on April 16, 2001 09:45:20 AM
Canada Tries Tough Smoking Labels
By ABCNEWS.com
The Canadian government is requiring tobacco companies to put harsh images on cigarettes sold there. The government hopes the gruesome pictures will inspire Canadians to quit smoking.
One shows a brain split in half oozing blood from a stroke, with text saying cigarettes can cause strokes.
posted on April 16, 2001 09:55:27 AM
Speaking as the daughter of someone who is suffering from cancer attributed to cigarette smoking, I am all for anything that saves families from the heartache we must now endure.
BECKY
[ edited by MrsSantaClaus on Apr 16, 2001 09:59 AM ]
posted on April 16, 2001 11:03:41 AM
My Mother died of smoking 2 to 3 packs of Camels a day. She wanted to quit - tried many times and could not. I don't understand why they don't have residential smoking programs like they do for opiates. It is too much to expect some people to quit on their own at home.
I think part of the problem is it takes so long for them to kill you. If they killed you in 2 or 3 years instead of 20 or 30 people would really see it as dangerous.
posted on April 16, 2001 02:53:23 PM
We have had that exact type of advertising here in Australia, and it is effective. Disgusting to look at yes, but isn't that the whole reason behind it?
I really hated those advertisments and would turn away or walk out of the room when they came on. I was a smoker and believe me, whether we wanted it to or not it did sink in. We were quietly killing ourselves and it is hard to watch something that brings it home so harshly.
Now I am not saying that it was these ads that made my husband and myself stop smoking, but they certainly did have an impact on us and our teenage children. After many many years we are now 6 months without smoking and lessoning the chances of a stroke with everyday we go smoke free. So as I said even though those advertisments are revolting they are very effective.
posted on April 16, 2001 03:34:14 PM
Without massive political campaign and overall government reform, the United States stands little chance of enacting such a good program as our visionary Canadian neighbors have done, simply because the major corporations own our political representatives and the entire system of government 100%, lock, stock, and barrel as they say around here.
I smoked 2 packs a day for 21 years before I quit cold turkey 6 years ago. If I had had thoase sorts of pictures on packages when i was a teen, I wouldn't have looked so "cool" smoking -- would I? While I am not for aoutlawing tobacco and thereby creating a new criminal class and new crime syndicates, I am all for most anything that encourages smokers to not smoke and to keep non-smokers from starting up to begin with.
posted on April 16, 2001 08:03:14 PM
I'm still smoking and hating it. Every time I unwrap a new pack, I wonder what the hell I am doing! I would endorse such a program here, but I think Borillar has hit it on the head (my gosh, do we agree??? )
RJR and PM are just too big and entrenched in our politics and politicians to ever be forced into anything like that.
At least, until the courts get ahold of em! Those "Truth" ads are funded by the tobacco settlement from what I understand.
posted on April 16, 2001 08:58:16 PM
I quit 2 years ago-after watching my dear father die of lung/brain cancer (he smoked 2-3 packs a day of erik mini-cigars). I had smoked for 17 years. Even him dying probably would not have made me quit...When we buired him, my youngest daughter (who was his favorite grandchild, and sometimes I think she loved him more then me), with tears in her eyes, asked where they were taking her Pepere. Then, as we were lowernig him into the ground, she asked me "Daddy, will you end up like Pepere?". My camels went into the grave with his coffin, and I have not touched one of those things since. Like many, I tried to quit several times, but I will say this: as a drunk (dry for 9 years now), stopping drinking was a piece of cake compaired to quitting smoking. Anything that could get our young people to stop, I am for.
Rick
In the begining, God created the heavens and the earth.
edited to add erik cigars with proper spelling.
[ edited by ddicffe on Apr 16, 2001 09:02 PM ]
posted on April 16, 2001 09:42:56 PM
My father was diagnosed with emphysema last week. He started smoking when he was 16. He had joined the Navy and cigarette's were (still are) easily available to the enlisted. Then he progressed to the pipe.
He quit smoking over 30 years ago (when his father was diagnosed with lung cancer) but the doctor said the 25 years of smoking had already done their damage.
posted on April 17, 2001 01:23:32 AM
Malady - Sorry to hear that. That is another reason it is hard to get people to stop. Some people are quickly damaged and then there are other hardy souls like my Wife's Grandmother who suck them down all day long and in her case died of something else at 84. They are the ones that everybody point to who want to minimize the danger. For some reason the ones who are in denial all think that they will be the rare one with an immune system that will ward off anything.
