First to fulfil our responsibilities to addicted smokers: A response to Dalton

摘要

Dalton courageously calls for open discussion about ending, once and for all, the public sale of tobacco in Australia [1]. In fact, this discussion started 50 years ago, with the 1962 Royal College of Physicians study 'Smoking and Health', which reported the harms of smoking publicly, marking the beginning of a change in our relationship with smoking [2]. Central to Dalton's argument is that partial bans do not go far enough, that they inadvertently perpetuate suffering and stigma for those who continue to smoke. Dalton argues that 'compression of suffering' from withdrawal, brought about by a total ban within months, is more humane than the drawn-out cycle we have currently, where gradual smoking restrictions and consequent reductions in consumption occur over several years.