Philip Morris moves to block new tobacco law in Thailand

[willyumiii]

​For those of you who don't know this,Tabaco as originally used an a horse liniment,untell some idot found you can smoke it and it will calm you.Problem is they never under stode the down side of it.

What have you been smoking?

I do not believe your statement.

Native Americans ( Indians ) were growing and smoking tobacco long before the Spanish first introduced horses to the North American continent.

No horses means no horse liniment.

Smoke another and give it some thought!

[razer]

In Thailand, the only laws passed on tobacco, are laws to eliminate competition to the Thai producers and distributors.

A few facts about smokers.

Smokers pay more taxes than non smokers.

Smokers are not a burden on any healthcare system because they die sooner. Long-living non smokers cost the healthcare system quite a bit.

[reptile91602]

To Hell with all cigarette companies. Cigars are the only way to go. I love em.

[gyrosman]

Too late.

[DaddyWarbucks]

​For those of you who don't know this,Tabaco as originally used an a horse liniment,untell some idot found you can smoke it and it will calm you.Problem is they never under stode the down side of it.

Are you totally ignorant of history or just trolling?

Native American tobacco pipes have been discovered in burial mounds that date to the second millennium BC.

Perhaps you are confusing tobacco with speed.

Here in Thailand amphetamines were indeed used as stimulants for racehorses until the 1980s when people started to use them, and Yaa-mah became Yaa-bah.

[Artisi]

I have long thought that tobacco as it is grown may not be all that harmful, although I am open to views / evidence saying that it is (harmful). I also think that the myriad of toxic chemicals introduced to the tobacco during the manufacturing of cigarettes is certainly the main cause of all the nasty side effects.

I also believe that the toxic material recipe included in cigarette tobacco are not required by law to be listed or divulged making it probably the only product sold for human consumption not required to give this information, any thoughts as to how and why this is allowed to stand - money, powerful lobbying maybe?

[Diddl]

I don’t know what the fuss is all about when it comes to smoking, unless it is to collect more taxes of course, and also to segregate and look down upon smokers by anti-smokers. Isn’t it wonderful how people are and react – if it is not race, then it is religion, if it is not religion, then they have to find some other excuse so why not pick on smokers, and so hate and intolerance goes on! Who is it that said, “Divide and conquer”!

What about alcohol? Drunk driving can kill innocent people but no-one seems to be adverse to drinking! Why, we can’t have people deprived of their alcohol can we!

Why don’t we stop free-sex? That would eliminate venereal disease. Why don’t we stop fast food and additives, colouring, preservatives, etc. in our food? That would stop obesity, cancer, and other unpronounceable illnesses. But nothing is done about that! No, just pick on a minority, that is better and easier, and needs no courage!

The anti-smokers out there should research the tobacco plant and they will find that it actually has medicinal properties. It is what the tobacco companies mix in with the tobacco and paper that is the problem, not the tobacco itself. But, well, it doesn’t surprise me that people can only ever believe what they hear or read rather than research or know anything, that would entail work wouldn’t it, and we can’t have that!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, smoking marijuana would be acceptable to most people! Hmmmmm!

I agree with “car720” who says, “I am happy to say that I enjoy smoking and if it kills me then so be it. At least I will have lived life on my own terms.”

[Swamp Thing]

​For those of you who don't know this,Tabaco as originally used an a horse liniment,untell some idot found you can smoke it and it will calm you.Problem is they never under stode the down side of it.

That sounds like a load of horse liniment to me.

[swissie]

I must "out myself". I can not longer hold it in.

I have been smoking 45 cigarettes a day for the last 45 years. No kidding! I have found a perfect way to counterbalance the ill-effects of smoking by buying and eating the vegetables that are being offered for sale at the local markets. Living in very agricultural surroundings, I know how vegetables are grown here. The amount of herbicides and pesticides that are being applied is absolutely mind boggling,

A few select farmers around here have tried Bio-Farming. = Impossible, to many bugs and pests around, that will not even allow the crop to mature.

Enjoy your healthy Thai Vegetable-Meal. I myself have (under these circumstances), not the slightest hesitation to light another cigarette, while sitting on my veranda and watching those healthy Thai-Vegetables grow.

Cheers.

[rethaier]

Yeah right. Phillip Morris wants to educate people on the dangers.

[ThaidaGwaii]

Must be a good law if the tobacco companies don't like it.

[Truth4All]

It is possible to take on Big Tobacco and win. Australia did this with plain packaging with only disgusting pictures of diseased body parts on the packet. Banned all smoking in pubs and restaurants. Banned smoking in cars (don't know how you police this but it is law) When Big Tobacco lost the court case they were made to pay the costs. Interesting to see a new generation of young smokers in Australia, especially among young women. They are bombarded with education about the harmful effects but still choose to smoke. "It calms me down" is the common answer as to why they smoke. Some people against all evidence choose to be an addict to dangerous substances.

Sure-- Go to Australia and spend $25-$30 per pack of 20 or 25 cigarattes. The MOST I pay in Cambodia is $6.00 for 10 Packs of cigarettes. My favorite brand is in Laos and is $2.00 per Carton of 10 Packs.

I smoke-- maybe you don't smoke. Up to you. They don't call it The Tobbaco Monopoly for nothing.

[FarangKino]

Not a lot of people know this but Sir Walter Raleigh actually introduced tobacco to England as an aphrodisiac for the Virgin Queen. The history books later got it wrong in that she wasn't famous for taking heads but for giving them.

[anon4546543]

Smoking a legal substance is fine by me as long as the smokers don't blow it around me. Funny to see signs on a busy highway that a no smoking area exists near a school. Gee, the fugg from truck and car fumes is worse than one cigarette smoker walking through. Smokers kill themselves, drinkers are capable of killing many more. But I hope they don't ban drinking, bugger, what would I do if they banned the gift of god to the Scots, the prince of distilled wine in Gaul, the American attempt to copy both, and the mead and beer of common blokes like me. I go to visit my wife in 2 weeks time in Thailand. As a non smoker, I will meet a friend and we will huff and puff on a Cuban. With a good Australian wine of course.

[laislica]

The most amazing thing to me is that these international companies are bigger and have more resources than many countries.

They have the nerve to manipulate the laws in a country?

Isn't that like declaring war on the said country?

[halloween]

In Thailand, the only laws passed on tobacco, are laws to eliminate competition to the Thai producers and distributors.

A few facts about smokers.

Smokers pay more taxes than non smokers.

Smokers are not a burden on any healthcare system because they die sooner. Long-living non smokers cost the healthcare system quite a bit.

Humphrey Appleby is that you? He put forward the same arguments in Yes, PM episode The Smoke Screen. Hilarious.

[hawker9000]

Which kill faster, smoking or the annual smog?

Which is off-topic, smoking or the annual smog?

[cookee68]

and now for a touch of reality.

If they banned cigarettes or better still priced them out of the market like in Australia then I will be the first one to open a corridor to China and go back into the smuggling business because it will be worth a fortune. The only reason it works in Australia is because it is too far from anywhere in every possible way you can think of.

I am happy to say that I enjoy smoking and if it kills me then so be it. At least I will have lived life on my own terms.

Women no longer interest me. The booze no longer does it for me so smoking is all that I have left.

Me and cranky Frankie, we would have been mates.

i gave up smoking many years ago, but i agree with you, live your life your way, there are worst things in the air that are worse for you

[tartempion]

If I am still alive today it is because I had to stop smoking 15 years ago, thus go on and kill yourself.

And oh, when you will feel dead sick and suffer for months before dying enjoy jour decision to live your life as you wish.

[hawker9000]

and now for a touch of reality.

If they banned cigarettes or better still priced them out of the market like in Australia then I will be the first one to open a corridor to China and go back into the smuggling business because it will be worth a fortune. The only reason it works in Australia is because it is too far from anywhere in every possible way you can think of.

I am happy to say that I enjoy smoking and if it kills me then so be it. At least I will have lived life on my own terms.

Women no longer interest me. The booze no longer does it for me so smoking is all that I have left.

Me and cranky Frankie, we would have been mates.

i gave up smoking many years ago, but i agree with you, live your life your way, there are worst things in the air that are worse for you

... a stray bullet perhaps.

[Praematura]

Check out the show you can watch free on YouTube called "Last week Tonight" by Jon Oliver. He did a show on how these tobacco companies stop legislation in other countries. He used what happened in Australia as an example.

[hawker9000]

and now for a touch of reality.

If they banned cigarettes or better still priced them out of the market like in Australia then I will be the first one to open a corridor to China and go back into the smuggling business because it will be worth a fortune. The only reason it works in Australia is because it is too far from anywhere in every possible way you can think of.

I am happy to say that I enjoy smoking and if it kills me then so be it. At least I will have lived life on my own terms.

Women no longer interest me. The booze no longer does it for me so smoking is all that I have left.

Me and cranky Frankie, we would have been mates.

i gave up smoking many years ago, but i agree with you, live your life your way, there are worst things in the air that are worse for you

... a stray bullet perhaps.

Or a recruitment officer somewhere who will tell you not to smoke because it will kill you and then at age 17 send you off to spill your healthy guts on some foreign soil in order to make some fat rich guy even richer so that he can enjoy Cuban puros.

It's called deflection. 'Sorry, but nothing here to do with military recruitment. And nothing that justifies the injury, suffering & death that smoking causes. I agree about live & let live, as long as the smoke isn't anywhere around me (or kids) in a public place. Any anti-smoking law they pass; any tax they impose; and exclusion from public places they enact - has my whole-hearted support. Go home & smoke. Start talking about vehicle emissions, powerplant discharge, beans or backyard barbecues, and you're talking to yourself.

[DM07]

A little (funny) insight:

https://youtu.be/6UsHHOCH4q8

[daiwill60]

​For those of you who don't know this,Tabaco as originally used an a horse liniment,untell some idot found you can smoke it and it will calm you.Problem is they never under stode the down side of it.

Where on earth did you get this little fact from , where is the link?

[Benmart]

Tobacco smoking should be banned forever. It should only be used as a pesticide.

Don't forget to ban alcoholic beverages, sugary soft drinks, salted snacks, loud cell phone talkers, soap box advocates, etc.

Who decides what to ban and where? Not me for sure. I'm not in charge.

[Smee]

Philip Morris is selling legal products and has the right – the obligation in fact - to make its own views felt on legislature that affects its shareholders’ and customers’ rights and interests. While these views may not be supported by many in the anti-smoking camp, they nonetheless deserve to be aired and discussed rather than summarily ignored. There are many aspects of tobacco legislation, and not just in Thailand but throughout the region and beyond, that simply don’t stack up in the cold light of reason and upon examination of the facts. These include the effect of high taxation on tobacco products on poorer members of society, the clear link between the rapid growth of illicit trade (smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes) and, most alarmingly, the outright banning of less harmful alternatives to conventional cigarettes including e-cigarettes. Much of the financing behind the lobbying to deny consumers access to these less harmful products comes from the pharmaceutical companies who have their own vested interests to protect and develop. Why should big pharma’s data and opinion carry more weight in a balanced debate over tobacco use and regulations? The sad fact is that the debate is NOT balanced and consumers are not being given all the facts necessary to make their own informed decisions as to what products they choose to use or not, and neither are they allowed to participate in any meaningful way in the debate. The real issue here is that millions of current smokers are being denied accurate information on the risks and benefits of switching to e-cigarettes and are not allowed to buy these and other less harmful products because vested interests in the pharma and anti-smoking side of the debate have effectively bullied legislators into banning e-cigarettes outright or classifying them as pharmaceuticals, which they clearly are not ,despite a growing clamour from health and harm reduction experts worldwide who see e-cigarettes as the most promising way to wean smokers away from conventional tobacco products to less harmful alternatives.

[hawker9000]

Tobacco smoking should be banned forever. It should only be used as a pesticide.

Don't forget to ban alcoholic beverages, sugary soft drinks, salted snacks, loud cell phone talkers, soap box advocates, etc.

Who decides what to ban and where? Not me for sure. I'm not in charge.

When people start smoking ...

... "alcoholic beverages, sugary soft drinks, salted snacks"

... and/or forcing them down my throat, THEN maybe there might be some impossibly obscure point in talking about banning them. So no reason to stray from the discussion about smoking (except to lamely try and fend off what can't be defended...). Now loud cell phone talkers ... hmmmm. But still totally irrelevant to the current discussion.

The criteria for banning should have something to I think with the burden imposed on others by whatever we're talking about banning. Courteous smokers who are considerate of the non-smokers in their midst (and I know there are some) can thank their rude and arrogant brethren for the willingness among non-smokers to see the boom lowered, with maybe a little gratitude left over for Big Tobacco aggravating the situation further by doing what PM is doing here.

[Praematura]

E-cigarettes may not be better than traditional cigarettes because the high concentrations of formaldehyde.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/28665/20150126/e-cigarettes-not-safer-than-ordinary-cigarettes-contains-high-concentration-of-formaldehyde.htm

[Fullstop]

180 BILLION Dollars a year addictive drug industry! A drug that doesn't even get you high. It just makes no logical sense that they are allowed to do business at all. Why can't I sell crack? It's just as addictive and deadly.

Votes. That's what it's all about. Gutless governments afraid of losing votes if they criminalised the sale of tobacco.

*sigh*

PS... I'm a smoker.

[The manic]

At last a story on TV about real drug dealers who ruin people's lives. All PM sales reps should be arrested and jailed. Yet they have the nerve to try to influence government policy. On so many levels from past slavery, land ruination and attacks on the health of whole countries the tobacco companies are unethical, cancerous vermin.