Ok, I know this wont happen to us but while I was writing a few reports on Australian pharmaceuticals for work I was skimming through a pharmacy newspaper when I stumbled upon an interesting story which made me think of the potential benefits of doing this worldwide.

See the story was about Singapore being allowed to produce chewing gum for prescription purposes only. Many of you will probably know this already, but I personally was quite shocked to read that ever since 1992 chewing gum has been ILLEGAL in Singapore, smuggling it in, producing it, or having it in your possession can incur a A$10'000 fine (It was an Australian newspaper, so I'm not sure what that is in 's or $'s)

Now in 2004 they will be able to produce it for prescription ONLY.

This made me think, how great would it be if chewing (and bubble) gum was banned worldwide, par prescription of course.

Chewing gum IS a litter nightmare, that is an undeniable fact... anyone who has spent hours scraping gum off of your shoe, or seen the under side of your desk, or just looked at a normal street for more then 10 seconds would have noticed this problem, this is why I was so pleased to read that Singapore had banned it.

However gum DOES have benefits outside of giving up smoking. It is said that the repeatative action of chewing is supposed to stimulate the memory, thusly chewing during classes and exams is supposed to increase your performance (no evidence to that, but it is a very popular rumour) and it can help freshen breath etc.

Personally I'd have it banned as there is no direct NEED for it and it is a nuisance. But I was just interested to hear everyone elses opinions here.

<This has been another pointless post by Craig Bayfield>