Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1500748
Tobacco Asia 13 Q&A THE TA about 18 at the moment, with probably another 6 or 8 looking at it for introduc- tion. Finland just introduced it on May 1, I think, and Armenia, Myanmar, and Georgia are planning it for 2024. Thailand already introduced it in 2019, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and a cou- ple of others in 2020. Malaysia toyed with the possibility but has not got around to it yet. Indonesia likewise hasn't picked up that one yet either, neither have the Philippines. But I think Oman thinks of adopting the feature. TA: You said earlier that plain packaging has not been a smashing success, so why is there still this worldwide obsession about introducing it? Why is that momentum not waning? MR: Well, I can give you a very simple answer to that question… a three-letter answer, actually: WHO. The World Health Organization, I believe, has a mission to destroy the tobacco industry. They're looking at every opportunity to get their member state countries to intro- duce plain packaging as a way of achiev- ing that objective. TA: Plain packaging is not the only idea anti- tobacco lobbyists are coming up with in their sometimes rather hilarious attempts at decreasing smoking rates, of course… MR: Indeed. One example that did look as if it might actually happen, at least in the UK, was to print health warnings on each individual cigarette. I think it was a harebrained idea; and luckily it didn't pass parliament. There even has been a suggestion a while ago, probably also de- rived during some brainstorming session, that when opening a flip top box to take out one stick, the consumer would hear an audio health warning coming from a little electronic chip! So… what would happen after two sticks? Would you get somebody singing an entire song, and af- ter the third stick, you'd get a symphonic orchestra? TA: That actually would be quite funny…. a little song like, "Don't smoke, don't you dare to smoke, it's not goo-hood for you!" MR: We shouldn't give them any ideas because they're going to do it. [laughs]