Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utai!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!ubc-csgrads!acton
From: acton@ubc-csgrads.uucp (Donald Acton)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: tobacco advertising ban
Message-ID: <1804@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 88 07:14:21 GMT
References: <5929@utcsri.UUCP> <411@spectrix.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@ubc-cs.UUCP
Reply-To: acton@ubc-csgrads.UUCP (Donald Acton)
Distribution: can
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 49


The original question concerned whether or not tobacco advertising
should be banned given that the sale of tobacco products is legal. My
opinion on this is that it doesn't matter if the product is legal or
not they should still be allowed to advertise. As far as I am
concerned if you want to promote your own illegal activities then go
ahead, advertise and be stupid enough to invite the police to be one
of your customers. Maybe it will help reduce policing costs if you
announce when and where you are going to commit a crime.  

In article <411@spectrix.UUCP> clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris R. Lewis) writes:
}However, this does make me a little mad:
}>Wouldn't it be more useful to put another tax on tobacco products and
}>use the generated revenue to help tobacco farmers switch to other crops?
}...  I know that there's an argument that
}tobacco taxes help offset increased health costs due to smoking, but
}I suspect it more than offsets it (depends I guess on which figures
}you believe).
}
}Wouldn't it make more sense to use some substantial piece of that which
}the government *already* takes in tobacco taxes to help tobacco farmers 
}to switch?  Would save money in the long run ...

I see that Chris gets a little upset at the excess taxes on tobacco
and with me it is the tax gouging on gasoline that makes me hot under
the collar :-) In tonight's Vancouver Sun there is a report of a call
to increase the taxes on a carton of cigarettes by three dollars. It
claims that such an increase would generate 800 million dollars in
revenue and decrease consumption by 6%. In the past I have seen claims
that the extra burden placed on our medical programs due to use of
tobacco products costs 8 billion dollars a year yet the taxes raised
amount to only 2 billion. (I think the 8 billion is a little high but
the 2 billion seems reasonable and I heard that number while watching
the proceedings of the House of Commons.)
 
As for helping the tobacco farmers I say forget it. These farmers know
that the demand for their product is going to decrease and on a year
by year basis it isn't that much. They should be starting to convert
to other crops now and not ten or fifteen years from now when they
might not be able to sell their crop.  But, like most people they are
more interested in the larger profit next year and aren't too
concerned about no profit ten years from now. Sure they might not make
as much money next year but they will make a lot more money in the
longer term and they will save us some tax dollars too. As long as
there is the possibility that the government will bail them out they
are going to continue to grow tobacco. Once they realize there is
going to be no bail out then maybe they will start to switch.

Donald Acton