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Cigarette sales ban 'needed by 2050'
By Holly Nott
23mar05
CIGARETTE sales should be phased out by 2050 and tobacco products made available only on prescription, a respected public health figure urged yesterday.
Curtin University of Technology Health Policy Professor Mike Daube is calling on the Federal Government to get tough on tobacco control with a 45-year goal of banning cigarette sales.
Prof Daube, the former director general of WA's Health Department and an international expert on tobacco, said tobacco cost the Australian economy $21 billion per year.
It remains the largest preventable cause of death and disease, claiming just under 20,000 Australians lives each year.
And with 20 per cent of the adult population still smoking, Prof Daube said the Federal Government could no longer just pay lip service to the idea of smoking prevention.
"At the moment, around Australia if you are being charitable, governments in total ... probably spend somewhere between $15 million and $20 million a year on tobacco control," Prof Daube said.
The Federal Government's tax take from tobacco revenue is just under $6 billion a year and 2 per cent of that should be directed into tobacco control, he said.
"That would show that we're serious about it. It sounds a lot of money but it's not a lot of money. It's peanuts compared with the tax take.
"I'm also saying we should set a long-term target for the phasing out of commercial tobacco sales."
People would still be able to get cigarettes if they went to a GP and got a script.
Planning for the 2050 ban should begin now to provide realistic time-frames to end the availability of tobacco products.
"It gives time for smokers to quit, it gives time for government to run major public education programs, it gives time to run major cessation programs, it gives time for people selling cigarettes to find alternative sources of revenue," Prof Daube said.
He said he believed a cigarette sales ban would attract criticism, but was the logical next step.
The concept of banning tobacco advertising and smoking in workplaces had also met stiff opposition when first suggested but had proved successful, he added.
"If it causes trouble for the tobacco industry, whose products kill one in two of their regular users, they're getting everything they deserve," Prof Daube said.
Prof Daube has chaired several major international committees and programs on tobacco and has been a consultant to the World Health Organisation and the International Union Against Cancer.
From: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12634054%5E421,00.html
I can't envision many GPs writing prescriptions for tobacco...
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