PM Prayut says he cannot stop people from smoking

[Prbkk]

This has become a huge problem in China. I was there years ago and the price was something like 20B per pack. They were called Double Happiness! LOL

Up the price is not a bad way to go.

There used to be a brand called Long Life. The ultimate irony.

[craigt3365]

Stopping people from driving would be far more healthy than stopping them from smoking. I have no choice to breath in car fumes if I go out for a walk. Cigarette smoke I can get away from.

Let the people smoke, they only harm themselves.

They harm more than themselves. Those living with them due to second hand smoke. Their family due to the financial drain of smoking. And the economy due to health care costs. It's significant.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-11/22/content_11584799.htm

It is estimated that tobacco kills a million Chinese each year, says Yang Gonghuan, deputy head of China's National Tobacco Control Office.

..............

However, citing the report to be released in January 2011, Yang argues the net contribution of tobacco to China's economy is around minus 20 percent.

Cases of lung cancer in China have soared by 465 percent since 1980, and account for nearly a quarter of cancer deaths, says Zhi Xiuyi, head of the Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center of the Capital Medical University in Beijing.

They also have laws against meth and weed and coke.

Fat lot of good that has done.

Kinda comparing apples and oranges there....LOL

[Ulic]

Tobacco kills more than all the other vises combined. A bit hypocritical to allow one and

not the others I say.

[Inn Between]

Article 44 can stop people from anything of his choice but the little general will not interfere with crony profits.

And the extra 12 billion in taxes realized by the latest 5-10 baht a pack price increase doesn't hurt. I quit, so it matters naught to me.

I'm also sort of surprised and impressed that he is admitting that there's something beyond is abilities. However, there will be no questions from the media about any of this. I know nah-sink about any-sink!

[DrTuner]

You gotta die of something, at least it should be something you enjoyed.

[chrisinth]

PM Prayut says he cannot stop people from smoking

This is a pretty flabby response to a massive problem which costs Thailand dearly in health care costs and and lost lives. Around 50,000 Thais die each year from smoking-related causes - many of them non-smokers who have simply inhaled the toxic fumes from addicts' cigarettes.

With big tobacco companies increasingly targetting Thailand to boost their falling sales, the problem is getting worse.. Latest figure show the number of smokers across the Kingdom leaped by more than a fifth in 2014 to 11.4 million. Worryingly, Thai youngsters are getting hooked earlier, with 100,000 under-18's joining the ranks of smokers last year.

By 2030 smoking is expected to kill on person in six.

These disturbing facts - which come most from Thai government sources - must be known to the Prime Minister, who the electorate has a right to turn to for a more positive approach to the problem and its appalling consequences.

Across Europe and much of the developed world, ongoing anti-smoking campaigns have dramatically reduced the toll of death and destroyed lives and the cost has been recouped in reduced health care and social welfare expenditure on smoking victims and their families. To talk of cigarettes in terms of "a little happiness that the people can enjoy in the same way as liquor", as the good General does, is disingenuous to say the least.

Thailand's love affair with alcohol is arguably even worse than its addiction to cigarettes and far more costly in terms of fuelling serious crimes such as rape and murder and filling hospital wards and doctors' clinics with patients suffering from drink-related diseases.

"By 2030 smoking is expected to kill on person in six."

Whenever i see statements like this, regardless what the source is, i need to question it.

What is the ratio of deaths by smoking in Thailand currently at? An increase in under 18 smoking habits? I was a serious smoker (actually buying cigarettes daily) at the age of 14. This certainly wasn't uncommon where i grew up in a supposed '1st world' country.

What are the tobacco companies planning to do, change the chemical make-up of their product?

What marketing plan are the tobacco companies going to use to be able to increase sales and achieve deaths of a 1 in 6 ratio?

With the current restrictions on smokers (and more planned I'm sure between now and 2030) how will more passive smokers be affected?

Are our genetic immune systems failing and nobody has told us about it?

Perhaps i am alone, or just one of the few that actually question statements like this without blindly believing all that i read. I don't know.

But i do know for the above statement that i for one would call BS on scare type such as this......................

[chrisinth]

Tobacco kills more than all the other vises combined. A bit hypocritical to allow one and

not the others I say.

Which way would you go, allow or ban them all for an even playing field?...............

[DM07]

...wait until he finds out, that he also can not stop people from thinking for themselves, forming an opinion, not liking democracy taken away...

[bheard]

no but he can stop secondary smoking by ENFORCING no smoking in public places and bars

Public places are fair enough.

Bars belong to bar owners and are not public.

If I walk into a bar that is filled with ladyboys, I don't like it, so I walk out.

If you walk into a bar filled with smokers, and you don't like it, you can just walk out.

Being a transvestite, and or liking transvestites is a personal choice.

I don't care for guys that want to be girls, but a smoke, in a bar is something I do like.

Can you see the paradox?

Would you be cheering if they started persecuting gay people?

I personally think two men having sex is disgusting, but it's none of my damned business.

Don't get me started on what I think about ladyboys. I will say this though. They are more dangerous than cigarettes.

I don't see where the government should have a say in either situation.

Smokers should smoke outside and respect other folks that don't like it, OR go to bars where the owner says it's OK.

I know the owner of the TQ in Pattaya would never allow a katoey thru the door, but I can smoke in there.

I'm fine with that. It's HIS bar.

Blanket laws that restrict personal choice I disagree with.

You need to understand what it's all about. Health and who pays ultimately for the hospital treatment that smokers receive. That's right, the taxpayer has to pay for it. Blanket bans on smoking are about reducing the burden on the health system. Your comparison withlady boys is apples and oranges.

[CantSpell]

Article 44 can stop people from anything of his choice but the little general will not interfere with crony profits.

Exactly....

Nothing to do with "this is a little happiness that the people can enjoy in the same way as liquor"

Everything to do with "can't interfere with the happiness of the paymasters making crap loads of profit"

[hawker9000]

If ever higher taxes.and more onerous restrictions, public shunning, and the threat of slow, agonizing death can't stop smoking, what would make even a politician anywhere suppose for a moment that he can? Acquire the habit and, for most, tobacco has you by the short & curlies.

[chrisinth]

no but he can stop secondary smoking by ENFORCING no smoking in public places and bars

Public places are fair enough.

Bars belong to bar owners and are not public.

If I walk into a bar that is filled with ladyboys, I don't like it, so I walk out.

If you walk into a bar filled with smokers, and you don't like it, you can just walk out.

Being a transvestite, and or liking transvestites is a personal choice.

I don't care for guys that want to be girls, but a smoke, in a bar is something I do like.

Can you see the paradox?

Would you be cheering if they started persecuting gay people?

I personally think two men having sex is disgusting, but it's none of my damned business.

Don't get me started on what I think about ladyboys. I will say this though. They are more dangerous than cigarettes.

I don't see where the government should have a say in either situation.

Smokers should smoke outside and respect other folks that don't like it, OR go to bars where the owner says it's OK.

I know the owner of the TQ in Pattaya would never allow a katoey thru the door, but I can smoke in there.

I'm fine with that. It's HIS bar.

Blanket laws that restrict personal choice I disagree with.

You need to understand what it's all about. Health and who pays ultimately for the hospital treatment that smokers receive. That's right, the taxpayer has to pay for it. Blanket bans on smoking are about reducing the burden on the health system. Your comparison withlady boys is apples and oranges.

In this case its all about putting 12 billion into the coffers.

If the risks have been proven that smoking is such a hazard to health, then why isn't it banned globally?

Take the money out of equation that is generated by tax on cigarettes and that will give you the answer.

IMO, it is pure hypocrisy voiced by governments when talking about health and cigarettes/smoking given the known risks to the populations of their countries.

[Ricardo]

Only on Thailand can you get away with calling your company '' Thailand Tobacco Monopoly''

But what else would you call the state enterprise, which operates under the complete control of the Ministry of Finance & makes a large contribution to government finances, and still has 79% market-share by volume ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand_Tobacco_Monopoly

Did you think it was a private company of some sort ?

Edited February 11, 2016 by Ricardo

[Ricardo]

Article 44 can stop people from anything of his choice but the little general will not interfere with crony profits.

Sorry, but what "crony profits" ?

TTM pays over B60-billion per-annum to the government, it's Board of Directors comprises mostly civil-servant & bankers, and only a couple of generals (police or military) , where are the cronies you refer to ?

[jerojero]

What! Just invoke Art 44, ban all smoking. Simple solution Mr PM.