Who cares by whom. It's enough that this is what the tobacco companies would ahve released had they thought of it/been allowed to. Motives are irrelevant in this case: the effect is the same.
We don't have a epidemic of 14 year olds playing with guns in Switzerland, but many smoke. Smoking is one of the most dangerous things you can possibly do. And if many kids started acquiring guns at a young age then you betcha - keeping toy guns away from kids would be sensible.
Had that when I was a kid too. Funny though I hadn't associated it with cocaine snorting until you mentioned it. That's another thing to take off the shelves.
And I get where you're coming from too. Thing is where are all these kids walking the streets with these evil things? In fact I don't remember when I last saw a kind with one. How about you Transition? Or Economisto? Or maybe you Mabern? Or Walterguariento? Is it just me here in Vaud or are the street corners in other Cantons full of kids hanging out with candy cigarettes dangling out of the corner of their mouths?
A lot of good work's been done addressing the health issues of smoking. If you must know, like Raaaabert, I think the candy cigarettes are a bit naughty and unnecessary in this day and age but I reserve my moral outrage for stuff that I think will make a difference.
OMG! Not the industry started to produce toy guns as well! This is clearly a targeted effort to sell them the real thing when they grow up! They will all end up robbing banks!
They are very traditional sweets and children exactly like them for the discussion we are having: Some grandma might think it is the real thing and react shocked when they see you with it... when I was a kid they were popular at the Walpurgisnacht, the euqivalent to Haloween, or Carneval.
The downside is that they are simply terrible gums, so nobody buys them on a regular basis. That's why you hardly ever see them in shops.
I doubt it either but that wasn't the point I was getting at... cigarettes KILL & these don't exactly bring the message across that its a bad thing to do,do they? If ever you should of course be tempted..
Even if theres the slightest suggestion that they can influence future behaviour then really they should be banned..... its just not worth the trouble.
Yes the toy gun debate is a strong counter-argument - lets not dwell on that.
except when you shoot people with it as happens. This whole thing just doesnt work for me. I had those candy ciggies when i was younger and I dont smoke. You can't say someone eating (not smoking) them aged 6 is any more likely to start smoking than they are likely to buy a real gun and go and shoot someone. Your mental capacity at 16 is not the same as when you are very young and yes you might not be the most sensible person in the world but it isnt going to be having eaten candy ciggarettes aged 6 that will make you start smoking.
If your going to ban it you have to ban the rest of them (toy guns and so on).
I wonder what age bracket the candy is aimed at? Around our town kids that I would hardly age even as teenagers are smoking the real deal including spliffs. Makes you wonder what the heck you can do to stop kids starting this disgusting addiction; selling lookalike candy can't be a good visual deterrent.
And glad that there are some aspects of non-nanny-state remaining in this safety-label mad world that seems only to be breeding an ever growing number of ... never mind. Anyone who saw that programme on damage claims in the UK knows what I mean.
I think its important to note that the products you may have seen when young which were styled as cigarettes are not these. Similar but not the same as these are sold as chewing gum & are not sweet candy like the ones I also used to 'use' when I was a kid..
Therefore one could assume that the target-age could be around 8+ years old, much closer to an age when children are first tempted to smoke unless I'm well out of touch these days & five year olds are now chewing gum?
Speaking of it, I find the sweets a bit too backward: Nobody can seriously mistake them as the real deal if there is not a fake warning lable on the fake package. We are after all in the 21st century.
I do sada, it's obviously worse if you have tall children...
In GB there is a big debate about the sexualisation of children, availability of make up for them & adult style underwear.. etc
I'm not into a nanny state but I do agree that being a child is special & to lose some of that innocence too early is bad for society in general, too much expectation on them.
