Ban Smoking??

With effect from 1 Oct 2005, smoking is BANNED in bus interchanges, bus stops, public toilets, public swimming complex, stadiums and community centres. (I was late by a week in blogging this. I noe..)

Gone were the days smokers can practically light up anywhere, cinemas, offices, wherever u can think of. TVs run ads of cigerettes portraying the coolness of smoking, attempting to associate smoking to success.

It all started with the banning of smoking in cinemas, public buses, later extended to air-conditioned places. Complaints and rants from smokers had since died down and it became a socially-accepted rule that smoking is prohibited in air-conditioned areas.

Cigerette costs keep increasing, just like oil prices, but nvr falls. Pack sizes inflates, from 10s to 20s. No more 1 pack 10 pcs Marlboros that costs $3+. It takes a red piece of paper and a few metals to get 20 sticks/100 mins of high. Singapore Customs is collecting 35 cents per stick once its stocked in the retailers, make that 35 x 20 = 700 cents aka $7 per pack. Actual price per pack = $11 - $7 = $4. Its a mighty 175% markup. Woot! What a profit Singapore Customs is making.

It probably costs ard RM5 in Malaysia. Converts to SGD = $2.50. No wonder there's people willing to take the risk and tout duty unpaid Malaysian cigerettes.

Now with this new law of no smoking in bus interchanges (awareness created using print advertisements which looks like a blank piece of lousy paper stuck onto pillars), the concept of smoking is gradually changing. Its no longer cool to smoke when u can only smoke at designated areas (Think the yellow box in camp). It even seems stupid to be contributing $7 to the Singapore Customs and be restricted to corners to smoke.

Leftover cigerette stink in toilets is a common experience, but how are they going to catch the deviants who smoke in toilets!?!??! Of all places, breathing in smoke + toilet smell. Some suggested using the sprinklers to drench the smokers. Cute suggestion. I'm waiting to see it being implemented.

I wun be surprised if the govt decides to ban smoking totally. They wun be the 1st since Bhutans (wherever in the world it is) had already snatched the best seat. They already banned chewing gum in a short period of time. Now they're increasing the price of cigerettes and restricting the places smokers are allowed to smoke. This will somehow encourage some ppl to quit smoking or reduce smoking, and deters ppl to start smoking, but the hardcores will still value their addiction over their pockets.

Would Singapore want to hurt their tourism just to get a smoke-free reputation? The amt of China and Japanese tourists will reduce if Singapore decides to be a squeaky-clean, smoke-free city, since they have a high percentage of smokers in their population. These tourists wouldnt want to go to a place intended for relaxing to find themselves suffocating from the lack of nicotine. They wld not be attracted no matter how many casinos are crammed into this small island.

Singapore's economy depends mainly on trade and tourism, I dun think Bhutans do, which is partly the reason y they can afford to have a total ban on smoking. Next best thing they could do: Raise price of cigerettes, prevents tourists from bringing their homeland cigerettes in => make smoking tourists pay the Singapore cigerette price => increases foreign income => boosts economy. One stone kill a lot of birds. Sounds cunning.

I personally dun smoke, CANNOT understand the kick from smoking, and seriously CANNOT understand y smokers are willingly paying $7 to Customs rather than contributing it to charity. Customs is already VERY rich from all the oil duty taxes, vehicle tax, road tax, everything tax. All our $$ put in their bank account and earn interest for themselves.

A once-deemed-to-be social behavior had turned into a socially unaccepted behavior.

I sound so economical, political, sociological. Must be the too many classes I'm attending every week.