Originally Posted by
Alcohol Induced Altruism
Oh well now I can't *see* the cigarettes, I'm gonna forget all about them and stop smoking. It was SEEING them that made me smoke, thank goodness for this new law.
Of course keeping cigarettes out of view isn't going to magically make everyone stop smoking. But that doesn't mean it won't help.
For people trying to stop smoking, seeing cigarettes is quite likely to cause a craving, hence making it harder to stop. There was a similar issue with drugs a while back when an anti-drug campaign produced a series of billboards and posters that included images of drug paraphernalia. It was fine for people without a history of drug use, but the ads were taken down because they were so triggering for recovering addicts, even those who had been clean for months or even years. Visual stimuli can have similar effect for people recovering from nicotine dependence, and obviously cigarettes are something most smokers would strongly associate with nicotine.
People who haven't started smoking yet are probably going to be less likely to buy cigarettes if they don't see them. I realize that many smokers probably got their first cigarette from a friend or whatever and may well have been addicted before ever buying them from a store, but I have to assume there's also some portion of people who do decide to buy some cigarettes to try, and those people at least would be less likely to start smoking if they didn't see cigarettes in stores.
Originally Posted by
Alcohol Induced Altruism
I suppose the less people see cigarettes and are familiar with them, the less socially acceptale they become.
Which means I get twice as many "isn't she scum" looks when I indulge in a nice cigarette now. Nice one.
Making cigarettes less socially acceptable would almost certainly be a good thing overall even if it kind of sucks for current smokers, in that it discourages people from starting smoking and provides additional motivation for current smokers to stop. Personally I find cigarette smoke extremely unpleasant, and I'm inclined to see that people who are smoking in settings where they're getting disgusted looks from others probably deserve those looks. Smoking somewhere that your smoke bothers other people is really a very selfish thing to do anyway, and it really shouldn't be socially acceptable at all.