The expected life enjoyment of Canadian tobacco smokers has dropped quite a bit over the past few months. Last November, our government announced a comprehensive anti-tobacco strategy, including tax hikes, anti-smuggling initiatives to counteract the tax hikes, and Bill C-71, The Tobacco Act.
    The Tobacco Act makes Canada's tobacco laws among the toughest in the world. It places restrictions on advertising and event sponsorship, and increases government power to monitor and control the labeling of toxic ingredients in cigarettes.

Mr Butts Speaks Out 

    In voicing the tobacco industry's concerns over Bill C-71, Robert Parker, President of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, stated, "We acknowledge that there are health risks associated with smoking." No small acknowledgement when you consider that tobacco prematurely ends the lives of about 41,000 Canadians a year, and that about twenty-one per cent of all deaths in Canada are attributable to smoking.
    Parker continued, "For that reason we believe the decision to smoke, or not to smoke, is one for informed adults to make." Bob has a point, but to date this argument hasn't worked for cannabis smokers.
    He continued, "No factual evidence has been given... to explain how this Bill will accomplish its announced objectives." Again, Bob has a point. Norway banned tobacco advertising and sponsorship over twenty years ago. Sales fell initially but later rose. Unfortunately for the tobacco industry and event organizers, Canadian policy-makers have never paid much attention to evidence from Europe, and a lack of evidence explaining how a Bill would achieve its announced objectives didn't stop C-8.

Public Opinion

    Many Canadian cities are banning indoor smoking outright, and Vancouver's pub and restaurant owners are not pleased. Sixty percent are opposed to the total ban on public smoking and 87% say businesses should be free to work out seating arrangements that accommodate the needs of both smokers and non-smokers.
    The public seems to agree. Last summer a survey by Macleans magazine stated that more than two-thirds of Canadians surveyed do not favour any legislation to control smoking.
    Others don't think the new Act goes far enough and have taken the law into their own hands. A British Columbian anti-tobacco activist, charged with mischief for throwing a paint ball at a Players' cigarettes billboard, was given an absolute discharge after calling expert witnesses to testify about the perils of smoking.

Hard Core Reality

    Health Minister David Dingwall admitted not everyone would be pleased with the reforms but he said it was the most comprehensive package the government could hope for after the Supreme Court of Canada judgment in 1995 that upheld the tobacco companies' right to advertise.
    "I would have loved to be able to ban the product, but the hard-core reality is we live in a real world," Dingwall told a news conference. "The fact of the matter is 7 million Canadians are addicted. If you want me to ban the product, you are going to have smuggling and racketeering like you've never seen before." Though amazingly hypocritical, Dave has a point.

Cocaine, Heroin, Nicotine

    The imaginary line between tobacco and other recreational drugs is becoming more obscure. Researchers from the University of Cagliari in Italy reported in the journal Nature that nicotine acts on the brain in a similar way to cocaine and heroin, and could be just as addictive. The scientists said experiments on rats showed that nicotine stimulated the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
    Is this news? Not really. A 1972 internal memo from Philip Morris conceded that nicotine is chemically similar to cocaine and people smoke primarily to get the substance into their bodies. The memo went on to suggest "Kool" cigarettes were considered by focus groups to be the best "after marijuana" smoke to maintain a "high."

The War on Tobacco

    Now the War on Tobacco is borrowing tactics from the War on Drugs. The US Food and Drug Administration just approved a urine test that can identify tobacco users. The test is called Nic-Check, and it detects the level of nicotine in a person's body by exposing a chemically sensitive paper to a person's urine sample.
    The BC and Ontario provincial governments have been hiring teenage decoys to entrap tobacco retailers who sell to minors. In BC, Health Minister Joy MacPhail told a news conference that over 150 retailers have been convicted of selling cigarettes to minors. "Selling cigarettes to youth is selling an addictive substance to our children, a substance which causes disease and early death," said MacPhail.

Mr Butts, Meet Mr Christie

    So how far should our government go to protect our children? A cookie a day increases your risk of heart disease by 1.49 per cent, whereas second-hand cigarette smoke increases your risk of fatal heart disease by only 1.20 per cent. A factor of 1.0 per cent is considered no risk at all, and the possibility of lung cancer from second-hand smoke poses a risk factor of 1.19.
    Despite their scientific grounding, when Philip Morris ran advertisements in France comparing the dangers of breathing in second-hand smoke to that of eating cookies or drinking milk, a displeased French court called the ads "very harmful" to the interests of French cookie makers.
The US Surgeon General's office, which puts warnings on cigarette packs and liquor bottles, recently announced that sloth and obesity cause as much cancer as tobacco.

They're Coming For You

    Where will it end? Calling exposing children to second-hand smoke a form of child abuse, an Ontario Medical Association policy paper called for banning second-hand smoke in homes. An Ontarian alderman has suggested a ban on smoking in private vehicles containing children.
    First they came for the pot smokers, and I didn't speak out because I don't smoke pot. They then came for the tobacco smokers, and I didn't speak out because I don't smoke tobacco. Then they came for the people who eat red meat, and I didn't speak out because I'm a vegetarian. Then they came for me, but by that time there was no one left to speak out.
Matthew Elrod