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The Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco
Viewpoints No. 3
"THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT":
A SOCIALIST-ANARCHIST FABLE ABOUT THE PROHIBITION OF SMOKING
By Jack Robinson
FOREST is supported by voluntary donations from smokers, non-smokers and
by Britain's free enterprise tobacco companies. This campaign is not
funded by taxpayers. Details of how to subscribe to FOREST are
available from the address below.
FOREST
Freedom Organisation For The Right To Enjoy Smoking Tobacco
2 Grosvenor Gardens London SW1W ODH
Tel: (071) 823 6550 Fax: (071) 823 4534
Chairman: Lord Harris of High Cross
Director: Chris R. Tame
Campaign Manager: Majorie Nicholson
ISBN 1 871833 30 2
Copyright: FOREST; Jack Robinson, Anarchy, 1992
All rights reserved.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not
necessarily those of FOREST.
FREEDOM ORGANISATION FOR THE RIGHT TO ENJOY SMOKING TOBACCO
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"THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT":
A SOCIALIST-ANARCHIST FABLE ABOUT THE PROHIBITION OF SMOKING
By Jack Robinson
Jack Robinson, who passed away in the 1980s, was, during the period
1940-1970, a leading British socialist anarchist. A conscientous
objector during the last war, he was involved with the campaign against
capital punishment and with Amnesty's work for international human
rights. He worked in the bookshop of Freedom Press and was a regular
contributor to the magazines "Freedom" and "Anarchy". Although himself
a non-smoker, a teetotaler and a vegetarian Mr. Robinson wrote in 1967 a
trenchant attack on the anti-smoking lobby, which was then begiining to
get into gear.
In the form of a witty science fictional fable about a future
prohibition of tobacco, Mr. Robinson draws from the actual histories of
the prohibition of alcohol, of drugs and of pornography the lessons that
the moralistic fanatics never seem to learn. Mr. Robinson was
remarkably accurate in his prediction of the role of "women and
children" in his imagined future. Should the prohibitionist goals of
ASH and others in the anti-smoking lobby ever be realised it is
distressing to think that his other predictions would be equally
accurate. Let us hope that his little satire will add to the growing
backlash against the petty bullies and authoritarians of the anti-
smoking and "health" lobbies.
This essay is reprinted from "Anarchy", Vol. 7, No. 6, June 1967, where
it appeared under the original title "The Noble Experiment". The
sub-headings have been added for this edition.
FREEDOM ORGANIZATION FOR THE RIGHT TO ENJOY SMOKING TOBACCO
Women ....
In the year 1993 the dangers of the inhalation of the nicotine tars came
to be a focal issue in the campaigns waged by women's organsations.
Women like Judy Knight had waged a hatchet war against cigarette
machines; and lobbying had succeeded in getting cigarette posters
banned and advertising time denied to the agencies on television.
Certain clergymen with largely feminine congregations (which meant a
great many of them) preached sermons against nicotine and failed to find
any scriptural sanction for the noxious weed. The anti-cigarette
faction found allies in the Empire Party which wished to limit foreign
imports, and since tobacco was a product of the United States it was
un-British to amoke. Even that little of the fragrant weed which was
grown in the British possessions was "wasting acreage which maight be
used to grow food".
The Empire Party and the United States supporters (backed by the tobacco
companies) stormed the country with a campaign for and against smoking.
Bands against dope were formed with pledges signed renouncing the vile
habit of inhaling, or exhaling. The Church was so largely committed to
the anti-tobacco interests that personal salvation seemed to imply the
renunciation of tobacco.
The history of the stuggle against the cigarette was long and
complicated. The definitive history has yet to be written but a
summary, although omitting some of the details, can give but an outline
of this history of human stupidity.
... and Children
The first step in the regulation of the traffic was to prohibit minors
from buying cigarettes. Birth certificates were demanded at the shops
but this circumvented by adults getting cigarettes for minors. Minors
were prosecuted for smoking but this risk was found to give an
additional "kick" to an already forbidden pleasure. The "smoke-shops"
(which sold nothing else but tobacco) were granted limited licences,
their numbers were limited, based upon the populated area, and their
hours were swverely curtailed and strictly supervised. No smoking was
allowed off the licensed premises and if a customer was seen exhaling
smoke after leaving licensed premises he was deemed to be under the
influence of nicotine and was summoned and fined. If a motorist was
detected dropping ash in his car he was arrested for the criminal
offence of driving whilst under the influence of cigarettes, his
eyesight was tested and if it was below perfect he would lose his
driving permit,. Regulations were made that smoking was allowed in the
"smoke-shops" standing up but not sitting down, some "smoke-shops" had a
licence for cigarettes to be supplied with alcohol only, and smoke-clubs
sprang up that could supply "smokes" at all times to members. During
all this period the tax on tobacco rose higher and higher. At first it
was thought to be a way of limiting the consumption of tobacco but such
was the craving that any amount would be paid and the government began
to rely upon the income from the tax to balance their budgets.
The licensed trade, as the tobacco trade was known, decided to try and
set its own house in order. It decided to classify tobacco into these
categories: "A" for adults only, strong in nicotine; "X", strong in
nicotine and tars; and "U", weak in nicotine. Children were only
allowed to smoke "U" tobacco alone, they could smoke "A" if an adult was
with them to see that they didn't inhale. Adults could, of course,
smoke "A", "X" or "U" brands, but they tended to develop a taste for "X"
brand. Now and again the government of local authorities would ban a
complete consignment in a rather arbitrary manner. It was though in the
main the the trade was not the proper body to regulate consumption so
this fell into disuse.
The "Addiction" Bogey
An early experiment in the complete banning of tobacco was tried in one
county with severe imprisonments and fines for possession of tobacco.
The merest shred was sufficient to produce a conviction and the campaign
in this county was so vigorous against "the weed" that detectives
covered themselves with glory and a reputation for zeal by "planting"
cigarettes or fragments of tobacco on likely candidates. At the same
time, the seizure of loads of tobacco tended to make an artificial
scarcity and increase the price. Addicts found themselves resorting to
other crimes in order to raise the necessary price for a "puff" or a
"draw". Imprisonment was accompanied for addicts by the sadistic
torture of total withdrawal of supplies which led in some cases to total
mental collapse.
In a neighbouring county tobacco smokers were classified and issued with
cards from their National Health doctors as registered "tobacco
addicts". They were given regular chemists' prescriptions for a daily
allocation which they were allowed until such time as, in their own
words, they "kicked the habit". Irregularities invariably occurred such
as forgery of prescriptions and alteration of quantities, but in the
main the "habit" tended not to increase, except by immigrants from
neighbouring counties and the registration and issue of prescriptions
served to de-glamorize the cigarettes for teenagers.
... and the Results
Outside of these two counties another attempt was being made to control
smoking by legislation. From time to time various brand consignments of
cigarettes were seized and the manufacturer, grower and shopkeeper were
charged with manufacturing, growing or offering for sale tobacco, "the
nature of which is likely to deprave and corrupt the taste of any person
into whose mouth such cigarettes may be placed". The defence was
usually made that the cigarette was not made with such a purpose in
mind, that cigarettes of equal calibre had been marketed for many years
but it was pointed out by the magistrates that cigarettes over a certain
age and cigarettes in a high price category were obviously outside the
reach of the main-in-the-street and could therefore do him no harm. The
market was flooded with expensive cigarettes generally scented and
wrapped in rose leaves, and with antique vintage tobaccos which had been
held by the magistrates to be harmless.
On the other hand the other side of the market was flooded with cheap,
nasty and harmless cigarettes, made, so some alleged, from horse manure.
Nevertheless, the magistrates, "having no scientific tests or training
for measuring depravity and corruption of taste" (indeed assuming such a
thing existed, as some scientists doubted) prosecuted these along with
the rest.
A Mr. Jenkins introduced a variant on the procedure by putting through a
bill which made it necessary for the magistrate (or the jury) to smoke a
whole cigarette instead of taking a few "drags" and then condemning the
assignment. It was also rendered admissible as evidence that the ground
on which the tobacco was grown should be healthy and that the motive of
the makers and vendors should be pure and not merely commercial;
artistry in the manufacture of cigarettes was also found to be a
mitigating circumstance. However the production of cigarettes or
tobacco did not decline.
An attempt was then made to control the sale of cigarettes by limiting
them to credit customers who would then get them by post. The postmen
were fully employed in the delivery of cigarettes. A small illegitimate
cigarette trade was carried on furtively at street corners and in
workshops. So frequent were police prosecutions in this matter that it
was felt that the time of the police was being unduly occupied.
The result was the Street Offences Bill which increased the penalties
and drove the peddlers underground. Notices appeared in shop windows
"Young Lady gives sexual intercourse", "Unusual sexual tastes catered
for". This was a smoke-screen for what really went on. The retail
small-time peddler of cigarettes went out of business and "smoke dens"
sprang up in Paddington, Bayswater and the better parts of Fulham
governed by "tobacco barons".
The differences between men and women smoking had always been insisted
upon and coupled with the Street Offences Bill there was a drive against
male smokers, even if it took place in private. Detectives loitered in
public conveniences and offered male persons cigarettes. If they
accepted them they were arrested for "importuning". Females could hand
round cigarettes amongst females with impunity.
The Churches
The religious repercussions of smoking were curious. The Catholic
Church had an unyielding objection to filter tips, theologians of the
church devised methods of exhaling without inhaling, of not finishing
cigarettes, of times when smoking was safe. It was rather difficult to
buy filter tips, the market being a hole and corner method. In many
countries filter tips were banned altogether and an extensive smuggling
trade went on.
All these measures of regulating and limited controlling of cigarette
consumption were found to be failures. In 1994 the acute menace of war
and the absence of a great number of citizens on mobilization service
made it possible to be put on the statute book the Eighteenth Amendment
to Magna Carta prohibiting the manufacture, sale or importation of
tobacco. This was rushed through parliament by reason of the need to
conserve shipping space for foodstuffs and the need for workers and
fighting-men to be in fit physical condition to face up to the menace of
whatever would be the menace when they were fit enough to face up to it.
There were, of course, loopholes in the law. It did not apply to
Scotland, Wales or Ireland and border guards had to be strengthened to
keep out tobacco smugglers.
The price of tobacco on the illegal market rose so high that the trade
attracted vast numbers of hoodlums and racketeers for the transport,
smuggling and markeing of the "bootleg" tobacco. "smoke-easies" opened
up on almost every corner and police, judges and politicians were bribed
and bought to permit the importation of tobacco.
Bootleggers went into the tobacco manufacturing business and the uncured
rhubarb leaves were mixed with small quantities of real tobacco and
palates ruined for lack of the "real stuff" surreptitiously inhaled this
garbage and many died or ruined their bronchial tracts with the foul
vapours. College students took to carrying illegal cigarettes cases in
their hip pockets and many a necking party was followed by inhalation
with its attendant evils.
In addition to this, prohibition created an empire of suppliers who
corrupted the police, prohibition agents, judges and politicians for the
privilege of marketing tobacco. There grew up disputes about
territories, hi-jacking of loads and double-crossing which is the normal
outcome of business relationships but, being denied the sanction of
legality which dignifies such disputes in the boardroom, the law court,
teh stock exchange and the bankruptcy courts, the disputants resorted to
the machine gun, the sawn-off shotgun and the "pineapple" or hand
grenade. This alarmed both smokers and non-smokers and in 1994 an
opportunist President gained cheap popularity by freeing tobacco from
prohibition under a "New Deal". The gangsters transferred their
activities to kidnapping and bank robbery.
Since then there have been few legislative attempts on such a grand
scale to control the noxious weed. It has been realised that smoking is
a disease of civilisation. For civilisation, alas, there seems to be no
cure. One inevitably dies of it.