Just a couple of days after the Wail and Torygraph trumpeted the success of a no smoking prison on the Isle of Man, comes news of the inevitable unintended consequences, if the Star is to be believed (yes, I know).
TEABAGS have been banned at a non-smoking jail after lags used them in cigarettes instead of brewing up.
... instead of quitting, ingenious inmates poured out the contents of teabags and rolled makeshift ciggies.
[One former prisoner said] "Many inmates turned to teabags and some even tried smoking dried banana skins. Then the governor decided to ban teabags and replace them with granules so we couldn’t smoke them."
Probably the only people who would find this remotely surprising are bansturbators who still cling to the belief that all will instantly bow down to their personal whims without question.
Thousands of years' evidence of the human condition available for study, yet some still don't get it. Coercion is not a reliable tool for social engineering, nor will it ever be.
Much as placing road humps down one road will force traffic onto other roads which, in turn, will require the same restrictions; So does banning something lead to an alternative being found which also requires banning. In this case, the only winner is the increased profitability of the black market by a manufactured upsurge in demand.
One day, the righteous may work out that people are naturally resistant to irrational authority, and infinitely imaginative, and mischievous, as a result.
What fun.
