Government gore may be habit forming

While government safety Nazis have a love affair with warning labels, what they are mandating with cigarettes makes the usual warning labels look lame.

In California I found a discarded Kent cigarette pack on which the warning label occupies more space than the brand name. I was so amused I picked it up and put it in my car.

Here’s the front:

And here’s the back.

What I cannot understand is why the warnings are not also in Spanish. Does the government want Hispanics to die? Or are they just giving them a cause of action against the tobacco companies for not putting the warnings in Spanish?

Anyway, as I looked into the warning label issue I learned that in 2012 the mandated labels are going to become bigger and much more graphic, with grisly pictures like these:

There’s a whole series of ’em kids! Collect them all.

My personal favorite is this one:

I don’t smoke, but if I did I would insist on carrying the above around. If the government has to insists that you’re going to die, there’s nothing like a little gallows humor.

Seriously, though, you’d almost think the goal was to get smokers to become more callused. And if that happens, they’ll have to insist on ever more gruesome pictures.

Like this resected jaw.

Or this yummy composite specimen:

Or pictures of the following:

Invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue resulting from over 20 years of cigarette smoking. The patient did not know that he had a problem until he experienced difficulty speaking. Unfortunately, by the time the cancer was diagnosed, the cancer had spread to the lower jaw, neck, and larynx.

The patient’s jaw, tongue, larynx, and much of his neck had to be excised and as the pictures are not for the squeamish, I am not displaying them here.

But while this blog may have its gore factor limits, as people continue to smoke (which they will despite the pictures and warnings), the shock value of government-mandated gore will wear off. And the government will be forced to increase the potency of the package warnings to get the desired effect.

Ever-higher doses of gore will be needed to feed the government’s habit!

The result will be that cigarette packages will frighten small children out of their wits. When that happens, will the government forbid smokers from displaying their cigarettes in public places entirely?

Hmmm…. I’m wondering whether a side market will develop of coverup stickers for smokers to put on their cigarettes. Maybe the old-fashioned cigarette cases could be revived.

Or maybe the government will make it a crime not to display pictures of mutilated smoking victims.