I saw the above poster today and it sent me flying into a rabid rage because it appeared to promote a new negative image of the smoker.
I looked and saw someone so stupid and pathetic because of their "addiction" to smoking to not notice or not care if they smoked rat droppings and poison.
I also believe that this kind of propaganda aims to plant in non-smoker or never smoker minds negative thoughts about the smoker. They will subconsciously look at a smoker's lips in future after absorbing this image and then subconsciously see that filth and think "urrghh".
I don't use the black market but I very much doubt that the ingredients said to be in the "fake tobacco are really there. After all, the anti-smoking industry always lies or exaggerates a relative risk in it's scaremongering tactics of achieving it's ideology. I simply don't believe it and I can't believe that anyone else is stupid enough to believe it either.
I do believe, however, that this poster will encourage those psychotic anti-smokers in their abuse of law abiding consumers of a legal product.
Smokers are always the better authority on tobacco - we are lifelong, generational consumers of the product. Many of those who work in the anti-smoking industry have either never smoked or smoked relatively briefly. They are not the experts on this subject. Neither are they scientists. They are simply the propaganda messengers of the puppet master.
They have been telling us for years that smokers have no sense of taste because of their tobacco use. Now they advise us to tell the difference between what they allege are "dodgy" cigs and "real" cigs by our sense of taste.
The fact is if black market tobacco tasted as bad as these smoke free people say it does, then smokers wouldn't use it. They'd look elsewhere or quit and the one offering bad tobacco would lose custom.
The truth is that the tobacco control policies supported by groups such as Smoke Free Lincs has caused the problem of black market tobacco and increased the risk of children getting hold of it while putting even more smokers in line for increased harm rather than harm reduction.
History shows that high tax leads to a prosperous black market economy and prohibition makes criminals rich while the state gets poorer. Restrictions on tobacco also lead to increases in youth smoking. Children and young teens don't have to show ID to the man with a van to get as many cigarettes as they can afford.
Let's hope the New Year sees a return to common sense policies such as ensuring responsible and independent shop keepers stay in control of their stock without the interference of the Anti-Smoker industry's infantile and hysterical policies.
It's also time to stop tax payer funding of misinformation put out by smokefree groups. My wish for 2011 is that the NuGovt finally stops this rot and starts to listen to independent small business people and legal consumers and their representatives.