Why Bother?????

China is SMOKIN' !!!!!! (in my best Jim Carrey voice)

I almost choked when I read this: (my comments are between the asteriks, the article is in red)

**************************************************

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese cigarette packs will have skulls, blackened teeth or diseased lungs printed on them in the latest effort to tackle smoking, but one expert said the images may actually attract younger people to take up the habit.


**************************************************

SKULLS?????

Blackened Teeth?????


***************************************************


The images would have to take up at least 30 percent of the pack's surface area under rules that would come into force from January 2009, the Beijing Morning Post said, citing an official at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Similar images are already printed on packs in countries including Singapore, Thailand and Canada.

It was part of a plan that would also see tobacco advertising banned in China by 2011, the report added.


Chinese are the world's most enthusiastic smokers, with a growing market of more than 300 million making it a magnet for cigarette companies and a focus of international health concern.

China has banned smoking on public transport, but it is still allowed in many public places such as restaurants, and it is not uncommon to see people smoking in hospitals.

****************************************************

Hospitals????????


"Excuse me, do you have a light"

"But sir, you are here to have your lung removed"

"I got two of 'em, right?"

"Well....yeah"


"So how bout that light"

*****************************************************

The average age people take up smoking in some parts of the country had fallen to as low as just over 10, even as efforts are stepped up to curb the habit, the newspaper added.

*****************************************************

As low as 10?!?!?!?!

*****************************************************

And the new measures could make the problem worse, it said, quoting youth expert Zhao Cuiping as saying"In analysis over the past decade on what young people like, they far prefer skulls and other scary images to cats or dogs," she said.

"Rebellion, curiosity and craving for stimulation are the character traits of this group. So putting a skull on a pack of cigarettes could attract their interest and help them take up smoking."

Chinese cigarettes are also among the cheapest in the world and a packet can cost as little as 8 U.S. cents.

******************************************************

Well there you go....8 cents!!!!!

******************************************************

The country needs to rein in smoking or the habit could end up killing 2.2 million Chinese a year by 2020, the World Health Organization said in May.


A senior official from China's State Tobacco Monopoly warned earlier this year that smoking was so pervasive in China that efforts to curb it would upset social stability.

*****************************************************

WE WANT TO SMOKE!!! LET US SMOKE!!! MAKE SMOKE NOT WAR!!!!


This may sound harsh, but f**k 'em. If they want to smoke, then smoke. I used to smoke but I got tired of my clothes and breath smelling like sh!tty coffee.

You can put all the warnings and labels that you want on a cigarette pack. Does that change whats in side it? Hell naw!!!

If someone dropped a stack of $100 bills in a "well used" port-a-potty, woudl you go in there and get it? ME TOO.

The bottom line is people are going to do what they want, and until they decide for themselves that smoking will KILL them, then...puff puff pass

And as far as the kids smoking, parental fault. Where are their parents? And if the parents are smoking then, Hey, what can YOU do about it. Thats thier child.


I could be wrong....