This week in an apparent tax-funded Liberal Policy, a new anti-tabacco law requires all retailers to hide their cigarettes from the view of customers inside cabients or behind sliding doors. So? Non-smokers were never tempted to buy cigarettes due to their visibility. Smokers never needed a visual reference as a reminder to replenish their addiction either; a smoker's system (like my own for instance) physically and mentally brings up the so-called habbit every thirty mintues automatically. That's all it takes. I could be out of milk (or food for that matter) late at night and I won't bother to make the trip to the local corner store -- but I will if I'm out of smokes. Doesn't matter if they're locked up "out of sight" in some inpenetrable dungeon vault -- we'll get em' when our body tells us to. That's all it takes. Now see, I LOVE smoking (and by the way, if you live in a metropolitan area, you smoke too) and I am a respectful smoker at that (ask my non-smoking girlfriend) but get this; I am PRO anti-tabacco law ... but I am AGAINST the "campaign". The latest spiel on h/e concerning the anti-tabacco law was just that -- it was meant to point out that the campaign and its' slogan "le Québec respire mieux" is an insult to smokers AND non-smokers alike. Remember these ads? Thousands and thousands of em' (posters, flyers, coasters etc) printed in color -- on non-recycled paper -- claiming that we now "breathe" better... that must've cost us lots of trees, you know, just to tell us what we already knew. That's another right-wing erection right there, very popular in Quebec actually, but it is also an attack on personal freedom and common sense. You ARE next. You're overweight? You're next. You use hand-held devices? You're next. Like so: potential future warnings. They want me to smoke, they make lots of money off of it -- they want you to gamble, they make lots of money off of it (SOS JEU my ass) -- but it seems less transparent when they try to make it look as though they're trying to "help us out" right? Here's a novel idea: ban the cigarettes.
Email comments to: simon@descendo.com
[COMMENTS UPDATE]
"... the law's in place mainly to prevent teens' exposure to the products... "
Seems logical but "teens" find illegal drugs and those aren't on display ANYWHERE -- are they?