Physicians want to tax chocolate

The Scotsman newspaper reports on the British Medical Association’s Scottish local medical committee conference next week:

Chocolate should be taxed in the same way as alcohol to tackle the obesity crisis, Scottish doctors will be told next week. Dr .David Walker, a Lanarkshire GP, … said increasing the price of products containing chocolate would help reduce consumption and bring in more money which could be used by the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by obesity….

"But babies and young children are on their way to being addicted to chocolate before they can even walk." Dr Walker said the government should look at defining products with certain levels of chocolate in them and tax them extra.

Maybe they should also tax low-calorie foods to help skinny people avoid them.