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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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.