Smoking Ringgits Away

Well, the government has done it again. They've pulled another trick out of their hat and frankly, I'm not impressed.

What they've done this time is to increase the price of cigarettes (henchforth known as 'ciggies'). Perhaps they think its a pretty clever thing to do to promote better health and life without ciggies. But when you think about it, its not what its all cracked up to be.

Ask anyone who knows anything about drugs, or who has taken drugs, and they'll tell you that it takes alot to quit the habit. In fact, finance is never truly the issue, whether you're rich or poor. The rich can simply shrug off the cost, and the poor will resort to stealing more. Its a willingness to break the habit, and consciously say to yourself, I have a problem, and it needs to change. I've seen friends jump hoops (not literally) to get their fix.

I'd like to think that the government is just really stupid, and hasn't realized that short of a ban, we can't begin to hope to reduce ciggy purchases. I'm beginning to believe that this price hike is nothing more than the government's evil ploy to get more cash to line their pockets. That's right guys. Its a conspiracy that has reaches through all levels of government..

Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions here.

Its more likely that the govenrment is not invovled in a conspiracy, but rather, blatantly announcing that they're robbing smokers in broad daylight. It'll just be too much work to do conspiracy. More than the folks at Parliament are really willing to go through anyways.

I'm getting way ahead of myself here today... Hope something interesting happens before I write-up more bad fiction.