English musician and Berlin resident Joe Jackson explains why he's delighted Germany's smoking ban appears to be unravelling faster than a self-rolled cigarette.
Jump to full article: The Local.de (de), 2009-05-11
Author: Joe Jackson
Intro: Having lived in Berlin for the better part of three years, I've been asked to write something about my 'right' to smoke here. But I'm not sure I have one. The real question, I think, is: who has the right to forbid me to smoke, and on what grounds? Consider the following:
(1) Tobacco is legal in Germany. (2) Smokers are adults. (3) Smokers contribute enormous amounts of tax revenue. . . .
In the case of 'second-hand' smoke, though, anyone who really looks at the evidence - how the studies are done, who pays for them, what the statistics really mean - is soon reminded of the old story of The Emperor's New Clothes. . . .
How do they know? Well, they don't. They have just cherry-picked a few dubious statistics from a few trashy studies, and done computer projections from them. They can't actually prove even one death. . . .
People need to look beyond their personal prejudices and wake up. The phenomenal recent success of the anti-smoking movement is evidence not of the ascendancy of a noble cause, but of phenomenal infusions of cash. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been extorted out of the US tobacco industry in behind-the-scenes deals like the Master Settlement Agreement. Add to that punitive taxation and especially, the enthusiastic support of the pharmaceutical industry - which wants to sell nicotine products and antidepressants to the world's 1.2 billion smokers. This is how a fairly small network of prohibitionist fanatics grows into a juggernaut which simply intimidates any opposition into silence.
Anti-tobacco in Europe is driven to a large extent by the World Health Organisation - in an explicit partnership with three of the world's biggest drug companies.
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