The director of the Consumer Packaging Manufacturer Alliance, Mike Ridgway, having more than 40 years of experience in his field for Europe and especially Great Britain, gave an interview on June 13, speaking extensively and relatively briefly to Asia Tabac magazine about the government policy evident in 18 countries of plain packaging for tobacco products.
Government policy enforcement of the single pack for all types of cigarettes was initiated by Australia in 2012 with the aim of decreasing choice and raising awareness and reducing smoking rates among young people and has since been adopted by Ireland and other English-speaking countries of the British Commonwealth and a number of other states totalling 18 including France and Norway and Turkey as it is planned by the governments of 8 more places. The trend has spread to former French colonies and many developing countries receiving funding from the World Health Organization to enforce the measure according to the director of the Packaging Alliance.
Introducing the quite revealing and interesting interview with the president of the CPMA (Consumer Packaging Manufacturers Alliance) Mike Ridgway, the Asia Tabac magazine journalist began by saying that “So-called plain packaging for cigarettes is said to help lower smoking rates and dissuade people from taking up smoking, but does that step actually work as intended?”
The answer to the above question from Michael Ridgway is no because the biggest role is played by the price of the product and by extension its level of taxation. The removal of communication descriptions and product information played a late role and did not contribute to reducing the rate of smoking among the consumer public in the countries where it took place according to his assessment. Not only does this stand for the same date of 2018 when smoking in England increased after the single pack but it also facilitates smuggling by removing the sophistication from the design of the now non-standard packaging increasing the potential for counterfeiting.
An interesting discussion followed about the same possibility of simple standardization for sweets, alcohol and food which gets often promoted by NGOs. A parallel that by emptying one sector we move on to the next one was made in relation to the industry and the business model that presents in the same way for the limitations imposed from the point of view of plain packaging. The journalist also characterized the nanny state as a transnational epidemic. It was even suggested that drivers pay for their petrol directly to the staff so they don’t have to visit the inside store to pay and then be exposed to the tobacco products at the cashier till. There was also talk of installing microchips in flip-top packs to play an audio warning message every time a cigarette is drawn and whether it would be possible to play music with the second immediately after but the reporter thought that such ideas should not be given, inspiring restriction and retention of actions.
Michael Ridgway who is an outspoken critic of plain packaging for tobacco products stated however that he does not smoke and that he has never put a cigarette in his mouth. Michael Ridgway traces the momentum regarding plain packaging spread to the World Health Organization which he says aims to destroy the tobacco industry by conducting persistent attacks directly and indirectly through the FCTC and cites evidence according to which has financed the move.
Bring Back Smoking Freedom 
I put it to you that it the chemicals added to tobacco that does the harm. Retailers should be able to sell raw tobacco and give people the choice, It is the properganda by press and governments that make tobbacco more dangerous than what it actually is. Dont like the Gov,s making a mint out of tax on cigs because of properganda
LikeLike
If the additives to tobacco do the harm and not the tobacco itself then why do they add them since the solution to the problem would be not to?
LikeLike
Nobody prefers the government making a mint out of tax on cigarettes because of propaganda and enough is enough. Nobody wanted to pay through their nose for something that costs much less to produce. As if it wasn’t already a rocket price they add up the effect of inflation and the manufacturer or tobacco industry cannot keep the price still because of the levies and taxes they are discriminated with. The levy that was imposed on them to cover health-purposes costs and paying more money for those left-wing politicians’ perception of humanitarianism. And as if that wasn’t happening either you go to the airport to a W.H. Smith and you find cigarettes more expensive there than they are outside like £16. This country is ridiculously naive to communism and plain tobacco packaging. We need to elect Nigel into power or the prime minister could have been Jacobs who is a proponent and supports us.
LikeLike