A Note on Cigarettes and Plain Packaging

For this post I will be omitting legalese and in simple words attempt to explain why the breach of Intellectual Property rights due to the imposition of plain tobacco/cigarettes packaging by the Irish government is a very poor argument.

i) The Irish Constitution guarantees the citizen the right to life.

ii) EU and national consumer protection legislation protect consumers from misleading advertising and danger to health.

iii) Poisoning is a serious criminal offence.

I was a smoker on and off for a good total of 20 years of my life. When I started smoking everyone did; we were made to believe smoking would not only make us hip and socially acceptable, but it would also take us on a great adventure in the mountains, in cowboy attire, preferably on a horse.