Maybe public health researchers should have to apply for a permit before spouting bad ideas? A professor in Australia has proposed requiring smoking licenses that would force addicted smokers to seek permission from the government and get educated about the dangers of smoking before they could legally buy cigarettes no more than 50 sticks a day.
It s crazy to think we should continue to allow cigarettes, which kill one in two of their users, to be sold just anywhere to anyone, Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney wrote in the online journal PLoS Medicine.
This is one of the stupidest, most counterproductive ideas, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross (who was on Vicki McKenna s Milwaukee radio show last night talking about e-cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction). Stigmatize the smoker, blame the victim, while saying nothing about cigarette companies, or about better ways to help smokers end their deadly practice.
Perhaps Professor Chapman should have filled out an LSD license back when he was in college, ponders ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom. Because at some time in his life, something clearly went haywire in his skull.