Regardless of what view one holds on tobacco and the merits or otherwise of tobacco smoking one issue is becoming more clear by the day. State ordered universal "plain packaging" does nothing to reduce tobacco purchases (and by implication, smoking itself). In fact, the evidence is showing that it does the reverse: it actually increases tobacco consumption.
A blog post evaluates the latest data from Australia--which country was stupid enough to introduce plain packaging.
New data confirm that tobacco sales rose after plain packaging
As reported last week by Guido and Catallaxy Files (but no mainstream media outlets that I know of), tobacco sales increased by 0.5 per cent in the first year of plain packaging in Australia. I didn't want to comment until I'd had a change to look at the newly published stats in depth, but I have now done so and the figures in Guido's report are spot on.
