Ruth Malone, Editor
Congratulations to our colleagues in Australia who have just passed world class, groundbreaking legislation mandating plain packaging for cigarettes! More details will follow later in the journal’s News Analysis section, but this really is taking aim at one of the industry’s major marketing venues, the one smokers hold in their hand and regard many times a day. Plain packs will help break that bond, which is undoubtedly why the industry fought tooth and nail against the bill, pleading for higher taxes instead, begging for some other kind of regulatory reining-in. Kudos to Australian policymakers who stood with public health and made protecting the public a higher priority than protecting the tobacco companies. Of course, the industry has threatened lawsuits, but the Australian government is ready for them. The journal salutes all those who have worked so hard to make this possible, and we are proud to have published some of the research that helped make the case.
