One mans fag is another mans medicine!

I quit smoking at 7:36pm on the 6th of April 2010 and have not indulged in a cigarette since then. One single draw on a cigarette about a month later was all the encouragement I needed to stay away!


However, the people in this country have differing ideas on the effects of tobacco, so much so that they use it to cure cancer!





The tobacco industry is huge here and the Indonesian governments new tobacco bill aimed at reducing the amount of tobacco consumed in an attempt to stave of future health problems is under attack from the farmers who claim ( quite correctly I imagine) that there will be massive job losses.


What better way to protest than show that you have faith in your product!


 


Figures suggest that kids start smoking around 10 years old and that approximately 30% of Indonesians smoke at least 12 cigarettes a day!. Nice local market to have, but, the governments plan to eliminate Tobacco Advertising, prohibit smoking in public and put the obligatory diseased lung shots on the fag packet will cause a gaping revenue hole for the local manufacturers.





With the government at odds to save some of the 400,000 people a year who die from smoking related illnesses or to consider the tax revenues from this industry there are tough decisions to be made and once again, Indonesia proves that it can pretend to do the right thing while ignoring the problem.


Hence the reason for the Smoking Hospital being mentioned earlier.  It has all the permits, health credentials and is allowed to operate as a health care facility and is unlikely to be closed.


Cancer. no probs. Let me get a wadge of smoke in your earhole....





Piles, we got you covered, let me inject some of this shit into your big toe!





Sort of says it all.....Indonesia, never a dull moment.