DON'T LIGHT UP HERE

Retargeting Tobacco Tactics
By Kelvin Wade
September 09, 2010

In a new report, the Centers for Disease Control is reporting that 20 percent of Americans smoke. The people at the CDC are alarmed that with all of the anti-smoking awareness and programs available, 47 million adults still light up. However, California has lowered its smoking rate to 13 percent and our lung cancer rate has fallen much more rapidly than the rest of the country.

It's hard to believe there was a time when smoking was socially acceptable. Almost every television personality in the '50s and early '60s promoted cigarettes. You can log on to YouTube and watch Fred Flintstone sing, 'Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!'

It wasn't that long ago that smoking was permitted in restaurants and stores in California. We willingly engaged in the fiction that there could be smoking and nonsmoking parts of a restaurant. It was nothing to see sand-filled ashtrays in stores or purchase clothing that smelled of smoke. My best friend and I used to walk through the then-Solano Mall puffing on cigars.

In 1998, litigation by the state of California and other states resulted in a massive tobacco settlement that gave the state billions for anti-smoking programs, education and health care. In addition to that California initiated the toughest anti-smoking laws in the nation. We banned smoking in stores, restaurants, work places and even bars. Many communities have banned smoking in parks. It's been banned in front of many locations. And smoking is prohibited in vehicles when there are minor children in tow.

Then there are the taxes. We've taxed cigarettes so much in California that someone trying to maintain a multipack daily habit would need a second job.

While the CDC sees the numbers as alarming, I think the fact smoking rates have been cut by more than half in the past 45 years as astounding. Quitting smoking is difficult. And like eating fatty foods, texting while driving, speeding and voting Republican, we often do things that are harmful for us.

But if we applied these same tactics to other social ills, what effect might we see?

What if fast food restaurants had to pay for healthy eating education, diet programs, and anti-fast food PSAs? What if we banned eating while driving and taxed dollar menus like crazy? Would we see a dent in obesity rates?

If cell phone companies had to pay hefty fees to the state for anti-texting and anti-handset driving education and PSAs, while texting plans were taxed and texting and talking while driving tickets were tripled, would our roadways be safer?

What about alcohol companies?

Of course, many smokers are asking at what cost have we achieved these gains? They feel like a despised minority whose use of a legal product has been demonized by an overly watchful nanny state.

However, when you look at the most alarming part of the CDC's report, that 98 percent of children who live with smokers have measurable tobacco toxins in their blood, California's seeming tobacco overkill was worth it. But will we still think so when they come for our cheeseburgers and beer? Peace.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: It's amazing how we've managed to make smoking socially unacceptable. Smoking used to mean healthy. It used to mean peak performance. Doctors used to smoke.

We've beaten the hell out of smokers. I mean, before, when you smoked you just thought you were doing yourself harm. Now, if you smoke, we've made you feel like the lowest form of life on the planet. There are so few places people can smoke. It seems every time you turn around someone's proposing another tobacco tax hike.

Full disclosure, I've been known to still puff on a cigar every so often. When I go to Mexico, I like to buy a Cuban or two.

But it would be interesting to see what these tactics could do to other social ills. If we brought this much heat and focus onto anything, it's bound to make a difference. I'm not saying we should, but we could.