Friday, May 25, 2007

The Correct Term is Coercion

Here’s the headline from the Washington Post regarding the Institute of Medicine’s most recent recommendations regarding smoking.

Institute Urges Extensive Smoking Deterrents

And what are the institute’s recommended “deterrents?"

To that end, the report calls for state and local governments to ban smoking in malls, restaurants and virtually all other public indoor settings, and for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the marketing, packaging and sale of tobacco products. The panel also recommended raising excise taxes on cigarettes by as much as $2 a pack and developing a federal plan to gradually reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes so that they are no longer addictive.

Let’s see, a deterrent serves to defer individuals from smoking through the use of fear, whither it be of cancer, or other possible ill effects of smoking, without the use of force.  Coercion, on the other hand, utilizes force to enact change, which is exactly how the state will act to enforce the institute’s proposals, through the use of fines, if you light up where the state says you may not, and increased taxation and regulation.

The headline should read “Institute Urges Extensive Smoking Coercions By the State.”

Posted by John Venlet on 05/25 at 09:52 AM
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