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Sunday 22 April 2012

Plain Packs Will Harm Women Who Smoke Slim Cigarettes

You probably didn't know this (and you can bet that the Root of All Evil wouldn't tell you this, nor ASH, CRUK, Fresh, Stephen Williams MP, nor anyone in tobacco control), but counterfeiters do not bother making fake slim cigarettes.  The reason, despite what Chapman will tell you, is because it is often very hard and certainly not cost-effective to duplicate slim packs.  Slim cigarettes come in non-standard pack boxes -- the boxes are smaller and considerably slimmer than say a pack of 20s of Marlboro Lights.   Additionally, the pack artworks are often very complex with its overall design plus difficult-to-replicate embossing effects.

Don't believe me?  Have a look at this slims-style cigarettes pack.  You will never see this pack counterfeited:


Seriously, have a close look at this detail of the embossing:


Counterfeiters are not going anywhere near this pack. It's not practical to even attempt to copy this pack.  Is it impossible to copy it?  No.  But it would be so shabby that it wouldn't pass muster for a blind person (which reminds me, plain packs won't help blind people at all -- and yes, there are blind people who do smoke.  I do wonder how they were tempted if they couldn't see a pack...?)  The fact is, the more complex a pack is the harder it is to counterfeit.  Which is why the counterfeiters stick with the easier pack designs and the most popular brands.

Women tend to smoke slim-style cigarettes in far greater numbers than men (except for some places in the far east, I'm told).  Plain packs will force all packs to be of the same size, regardless of its contents, and it will strip away the unique features that make it difficult for counterfeiters.  Most likely, plain packs will mean that slim cigarettes are no longer made or possibly even legal, since the cigarette itself will need to be a certain size in order to fix inside the fASHist's standard pack.

This means -- and do pay careful attention: If plains packs do happen, women who smoked slim cigarettes would be at a substantially higher risk of acquiring and smoking dangerous counterfeited cigarettes than they otherwise would have been. For those who are going to say snidely, "Well, smoking is harmful, so what's the difference?" I say to you, ever watch someone get violently ill after smoking a cigarette from pack of dodgy fags picked up in Soho?  I have.  That doesn't happen with real, quality tobacco.

If you thought tobacco control fanatics actually cared about children and women, you would be wrong. The only thing they care about is punishing adult smokers and tobacco companies, demonising all of us, shaming us for being adults, and they use "protect the children" to convince the gullible, bleating sheep. It is not about health, and it isn't about the children.  It is solely about hating you. 

This is why we need to fight the nanny tyrants like the Root of All Evil.  They are not telling you the truth.  Plains packs will harm everyone ... men, women, and children.  It's a theory.  It is untested in any practical sense.  Are we really going to risk harming people by some dumb ass's theory?

They will stop at nothing to harm you. They hate you.  Make no mistake. Anyone who supports plain packs hates you.  They are all evil and they must be stopped.  Spread the word.