Update: Chocolate tax melted

The British Medical Association’s Scottish local medical committee voted today on Dr. David Walker’s proposal to tax chocolate in order to fight obesity and the “diabetic time bomb.” [Covered here.]

The British Medical Association is a professional association with a membership of more than two-thirds of UK doctors. The medical professionals voted the idea down — by a mere two votes, according to UK news reports.

Don’t be tempted to think the decision was based on scientific evidence. Nearly a majority of the doctors believed chocolate should be taxed. And those who voted down the chocolate tax, reported the Scottsman, said the tax would have been a bureaucratic nightmare and that 'the obesity problem' could be better addressed through public education and by subsidizing health foods.

Dr. Walker told the BBC that he still believed chocolate as a major player in the “mushrooming problem” of obesity and is taking a toll on the health of Scotland.