QUEBEC CITY – Quebec’s tobacco legislation hasn’t changed in a decade but the market has.
Since 2005, tobacco products have not only become more attractive, they’ve multiplied.
Teenagers are picking up flavoured cigars, smokeless tobacco, shisha and e-cigarettes.
READ MORE: Are e-cigarette poisonings on the rise in Canada?
“We’ve seen packages get smaller, get prettier, shinier,” explained Dr. Geneviève Bois from the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control.
“The flavours are really the beginning of smoking, it’s really smoking with training wheels. You start with a small cigar that’s cherry-flavoured or café latté and then eventually you graduate to adult cigarettes.”
Quebec’s smoking rate has gone from 35% in the mid-nineties to 20% today.
The coalition and the Canadian Cancer Society want the new objective to be 10%.
“If we can just curb down any percentage of smoking rate, in the long-term, 10-15 years from now, we’ll be saving billions,” said Québec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir.
Prevention is key, they said, and it costs next to nothing.
READ MORE: U.S. officials want to regulate e-cigarettes – is Canada following?
Philippe Furger is a Swiss doctor specializing in education and communication.
He said Quebec is a shining example of determination when it comes to fighting tobacco.
“What you’ve created here in Quebec is wonderful because you have achieved a situation where the smoker is not well seen,” he said.
Still, Furger thinks the province can do more to save lives and save costs, “all these cancers will be a motor of medical costs that will keep growing.”
Legislating e-cigarettes would be a start.
“What we’re suggesting at the coalition is that we bring e-cigarettes within the law on tobacco, said Bois.”
This would:
- Ban sales to minors
- Ban use in places where tobacco is currently not permitted
- Limit advertising
The pressure is intensifying on the Social Services Minister to toughen Quebec’s Tobacco Act before the end of the Fall session.
“Regarding about having a new law project, I’m working on it and I’ll get back to them when it’s going to be time,” Lucie Charlebois told Global News.
After eight months in power, the minister is still not able to set a date for the tabling of her bill. Meanwhile, anti-smoking groups continue to clamour for clearer objectives and more robust government action.
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