A Bad Idea With Good Intentions

I'm in two minds about the news behind this cartoon. There's a professor in Singapore that wants Tasmania to trial a ban on cigarette sales to anyone born after the year 2000.

Now, while I think the result would be excellent - I hate seeing kids smoking - I also believe that this is the wrong way to go about doing it. People have a right to develop an expensive, addictive habit that slowly kills themselves and makes tobacco companies insanely rich. Plus, I honestly think that a ban would only make it all the more attractive to those who couldn't get cigarettes. Or they'd just find something worse - hence the cartoon.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big anti-smoking advocate. I'm one of those few people who has never actually tried to smoke a cigarette (asthmanerd). The only person that has ever made me want to smoke is Rod Serling. But then I'd just follow people around, narrating their lives and occasionally advertising Chesterfield cigarettes.

Many of you might know that I'm a new father. Every time I see a young girl take a drag on a cigarette, I immediately think of Clementine and how I can possibly detract that habit before she even thinks about smoking. Maybe I'll just tell her that there's this law in Tasmania...