The BMA: modern-day prohibitionists

In the past, attempts by the state to prevent the consumption of alcohol were known as prohibition. Now they’re called ‘promoting public health’. The ultimate goal is the same though: the diminution of our rights in the name of ‘the public good’.

Fresh from browsing George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four for tips on good government, the British Medical Association (BMA) last week issued a series of demands following its annual conference. These included the introduction by the government of restricted licensing hours, a ban on alcohol advertisements, and a minimum price per unit of alcohol.
Dr Paul Darragh, chairman of the BMA’s council in Northern Ireland, claimed: ‘A range of substantive measures are needed to reduce alcohol misuse… Increasing the price of alcohol in particular will have a twofold effect. Not only is there likely to be an effect at a population level, but there is evidence that heavy drinkers and young drinkers are responsive to price.’
The BMA conference also decided to support the introduction of a smoking ban in cars while driving. ‘This motion further emphasises that smoking is unacceptable’, Darragh proclaimed.
Given that one of the BMA’s avowed aims is to make the UK ‘tobacco free by 2035’, its decisions are hardly surprising. They do, however, shed light on the illiberal nature of much of contemporary thinking regarding alcohol and smoking. Usually based on an appeal to protect others from the actions of an offending minority, there is a more authoritarian streak inherent in the current movement for prohibitive policy than such justifications suggest. The BMA has effectively declared its aim to be the denormalisation of certain activities and for others to be criminalised outright. Smoking is ‘unacceptable’ to the BMA not simply because of the effects of secondhand smoke on others, but because of the nature of the activity itself.
Let me illustrate what’s really going on with a hypothetical situation. Suppose you’re introduced to me at a pub. As we talk, I notice a man light a cigarette. Despite the protests of the publican, who is perfectly happy for the man to smoke, I inform him that it is bad for my health and that he must leave the pub to smoke. I then instruct the publican to ban smoking within the room. Frustrated, the man decides to buy a beer instead with his remaining £3.00. The barman informs him that a beer now costs £3.10, due to a new governmental tax. The man dejectedly exits the pub, and sits in his car alone to smoke. As he begins to drive off, I tap on the car window and inform him that he cannot smoke in his car, as children may be present (although they are not).
Despite earlier claims to the contrary, it appears that my real intention is to stop the man from smoking altogether. The prohibitive nature of the drinking tax is also apparent. In his famous essay On Liberty, John Stuart Mill wrote of such taxes: ‘Every increase of cost is a prohibition, to those whose means do not come up to the augmented price. To tax stimulants for the sole purpose of making them more difficult to be obtained is a measure differing only in degree from their entire prohibition, and would be justifiable only if that were justifiable.’