If you were to ask a large group of seriously ill people about the origins of their misfortune, the answers, if rendered honestly, would include many references to tobacco and/or alcohol. Tobacco is the most lethal of the two substances and nothing good can be said for it.
Happily, four out of five Irish people do not smoke. And of those who do, a strong proportion would like to quit but find addiction to nicotine is not easy to break.
Unhappily, smoking is still too prevalent among our young people and among the less well-off. That of itself totally justifies Government moves to use every available device within its powers to help people fight the habit - including the new law on mandatory plain packaging of tobacco.
Today the Irish Independent reports that the world's biggest cigarette conglomerate is threatening to sue the State over this new law on plain packaging.
The threat comes even as President Michael D Higgins must decide in the next 72 hours whether to sign the new legislation into law.
Source: Irish Independent, 09/03/15
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