The Domino Effect

As we've heard throughout the past couple of months, Ontario is suing tabacco companies for $50 billion to cover costs associated with treating citizens with smoking-related illnesses since 1955. British Colombia is also suing, and now PEI government has introduced a bill on Thursday that would allow the province to sue the tobacco companies.

Smoking-related illnesses are the result of death of around 13,000 people in the province. This costs the tax payers about $1.6 billion dollars annually. $1.1. billion is the number that Ontario collects from tabacco companies. The claims of the lawsuit include several claims such as alleging that companies have long know that cigarettes were addictive, and that it can cause diseases such as lung cancer, but did little to decrease the risk. As well as accusing companies of conspiring to mislead the public about the dangers.

This sounds just a tiny bit hypocritical, as tobacco is not illegal in the province, or the country. Is the government claiming that the tobacco companies lied to the people and the government in telling them that smoking would not at all affect your health? This is just like those McDonald lawsuits when overly obese people put the blame of not controling their eating habits on somebody else. I'm not defending smoking, or McDonalds here but the this sort paternalism is not good in the case as people have the freedom of choice in their decisions. You can either choose to smoke and risk the health complications, or you don't. The lawsuit cannot be justified in the sense that the government has known about the health effects of smoking much prior to 2009.

In the US, 50 states have come together to sue tobacco companies for the same purpose. How sad is it that many of these states still allow people to smoke indoors in public places, allowing for second hand smoke to occur. At least Canada has taken steps in reducing such harm. The Star reports that just two months ago, "a Los Angeles jury recommended that Philip Morris USA pay $13.8 million (U.S.) in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer."

If this lawsuit is successful, then we should also be able to sue alcohol companies, fast-food companies, cainos and basically anything that sells services or goods that are not hamrful to our health in the long run. Alcoholism in many cases leads to depression needing treatment and thus being unable to work - that also costs the public. Obese children and adults with health problems do as well. Yet, the banning of tobacco is still ruled out because supposedly, "education and progressive restrictions on smoking" are the smarter way to go. Smokers already are educated on the effects of smoking, they just choose to ignore it. Essentially, what I am attempting to get at is that a person should be able to make their own choices, even if they aren't very good ones, if the government will allow for it.

The responsibility should not solely rest on the shoulders of tobacco companies; although they have done some ugly things to promote "lights" and "slims" to ignorant customers and children. The reality is, both Ontario and the federal government have done all they can - from gory pictures on cigarette packaging to awareness campaigns. There is little left to be done.

So, I say either take the risk of an illegal market for cigarettes and ban it all together, or stop the hypocricy and suck it up Ontario.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/702554

http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/Local/PEI/ContentPosting?newsitemid=pei-pei-tobacco-bill-584&feedname=CBC_LOCALNEWS&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True