Sean Reilly expounds on how Chinese Tobacco Authority Dispels Smoking Myths . . . basically, the Chinese government and the population in general are buying into an idea that the stuff about smoking being bad for your health is bullshit and that in fact smoking will indeed make you live longer (can anyone say Long Life Cigarrettes?) despite growing evidence that very soon one third of premature deaths by males will soon be directly attributable to smoking. See his post for more scary idiocy type details of how smoking is being espoused as a kind of miracle drug that will make you live longer . . . scary ignorance being perpetrated at a massive level.

Sean does point out that here in Taiwan the situation does seem to be better . . . however, I remember news coverage about ten years ago where Taiwan’s own head of it’s own Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau went on record making exactly the same claims, going so far as to say that the scientists claiming smoking is dangerous were in fact lying and being paid by evil men who wanted to keep the truth from the public.

Everyone who knows me knows I am very anti-smoking. While I am in favor of legalization of some recreational drugs, tobacco is on my personal list of drugs that should not be freely available because of the longterm health costs both to the smokers and to society in general.