A Public Display of BMA Ignorance | Patrick Basham and John Luik | Cato Institute: Commentary

A Public Display of BMA Ignorance | Patrick Basham and John Luik | Cato Institute: Commentary: "proponents usually argue that the sole aim of tobacco display bans is to reduce youth smoking. So why does the BMA's statement suggest that other goals are being promoted, too? Why is Ireland now held up as a tobacco control nirvana? Most importantly, why does the BMA ignore a plethora of contrary economic evidence on the effects of such bans?

Until very recently, tobacco-control advocates campaigned for a display ban because it would lead to reduced youth smoking, full stop. But the evidence from various jurisdictions that have implemented a display ban suggests that smoking prevalence, especially among adolescents, is at best unaffected by such a ban. Indeed, there is evidence in some places that display bans have coincided with an increase in smoking.

Consequently, ban advocates are quietly and subtly moving the empirical goalposts. They are replacing youth smoking levels as the test of success with a measurement of how many young people perceive that their peers are smoking and then propagating a lower score as 'evidence' of the display ban's effectiveness. It is an intellectually dubious tactic, but left unchallenged it may do the trick, politically."