[68] Smoking Damages Your Brain

The Scottish Parliament is currently discussing a proposal to place a ban on brand names being displayed on cigarette packs. There is also a strong possibility that retail outlets will be forced to hide cigarettes away from the public eye – in other words, stock them ‘under the counter’.

The aim of removing brand names from cigarette packs is to take away the last vestige of advertising and marketing from the tobacco companies. All tobacco advertising in the UK has been banned for many years and this is seen as the final nail in the coffin of the advertising and branding of tobacco products.

Forcing tobacco products under the counter is a measure aimed at reducing the number of new smokers taking up the habit, particularly among young people.

What the Scottish Parliament is actually saying is – we are not in the business of banning the sale of tobacco products outright, but we are going to make sure that the tobacco companies will not be able to display, market and advertise their products to children and other non-smokers.

The Australian Government is also looking at the idea of introducing similar measures to discourage smoking. Just a few days ago a TV crew was filming outside a shop which sells tobacco products, soliciting the views of customers who had just purchased a pack of cigarettes.

“How do you feel about the possibility of cigarettes being forced under the counter and having no brand names on the packs?” was the general crux of the question put to smokers.

“It’s just another attack on freedom of choice.”

“They’re taking away my right to smoke.”

“They won’t stop me from smoking.”

These are just a sample of the responses aired by the poor down-trodden smoker.

It is well documented and utterly indisputable that cigarettes seriously damage your health, from lung and heart diseases to losing limbs and contracting all manner of cancers. However, every time I hear smokers defending their habit, or responding to questions about proposed or actual sanctions against smoking, I become more and more convinced that smoking cigarettes also severely damages the brain.

If and when cigarettes are hidden away from general view, smokers will still be able to buy their cigarettes and indeed, their favourite brand. The tobacco products will still be on sale. Hiding them from the public does not constitute a ban on smoking, but try telling that to the brain-damaged smoker.

Smokers are forever shouting from the rooftops about their right to indulge in their filthy and nefarious habit. When the UK banned smoking in bars and clubs, smokers up and down the country were up in arms, proclaiming their right to freedom of choice, conveniently forgetting the freedom of choice of the non-smoker to be allowed to socialise in a public place without being forced to inhale tobacco fumes –
not to mention the smell of nicotine attaching itself to their clothes and hair and so on.

“I can get knocked down by a bus.”

This is another oft-heard claim offered up by smokers in defence of smoking. Yet another reason for my belief that smoking cigarettes severely damages the brain.

I have news for smokers. I too could be killed in a road traffic accident, as could anyone who goes anywhere near a road in their normal day to day lives. I could also be flattened by an asteroid. I could be struck by lightning. I could be stampeded by a herd of marauding elephants. I could spontaneously combust. The chances of any of these things happening to me are astronomical, the same odds that apply to the smoker. Do I then say to myself – Well, I could be run over by a bus tomorrow, or I could be struck by lightning the day after tomorrow, so I may as well go ahead and stick my head in that blazing fire just to see what happens.

“If everyone stopped smoking tomorrow, your taxes would increase dramatically.”

Again, the much vaunted claim of the smokers who are so deluded they think they are doing me a great service by keeping my taxes to a minimum. Yes, more proof that smoking severely damages the brain.

Tobacco related illnesses are a massive drain on health services the world over. Whatever a country loses in terms of revenue from tobacco duty would be recovered tenfold as a result of reduced demand on health service resources. Furthermore, if diminished revenue from tobacco duty is a headache for Governments, why are they spending so many millions trying to get people to stop smoking?

I am an ex-smoker. I know how difficult it is to kick the habit and I am aware how addictive nicotine can be.

I have every sympathy for smokers who say – I’d love to stop smoking but I can’t.

But when I hear smokers proclaiming their right to inflict their filthy habit on me, and insisting that putting cigarettes out of sight of children in shops and stores is somehow an abuse of their human rights, I just can’t help coming to the conclusion that . . .

SMOKING DAMAGES YOUR BRAIN.