The Australian Federal Government has increased the tobacco excise by 25% (yay!) and is also legislating that cigarettes must be sold in new, “plain” packaging stripped of trademarks and pretty colours. The reasoning is that by making cigarettes more expensive, and less pretty, it will be less attractive for people to take it up. If you have a look around in some of the comment threads on news stories, you’ll see that some folks are saying that if we do this to tobacco, we should be doing this to alcoholic drinks as well. You’ll also see folks saying that if we’re not going to do it to alcoholic drinks, we shouldn’t be doing it to smokes as well. Should we be treating them the same? Is tobacco blinding us to another very real danger? What are the stats on Alcohol Vs Tobacco, and their cost to society? Read more »