One hundred deaths per day in Canada are caused by smoking. That’s an appalling statistic.
The fight to convince Canadians not to smoke has been going on for decades and while progress has been made, the battle is not nearly won.
David Sweanor, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa, has been involved in this battle for more than 30 years. He was a guest on the Alberta Morning News on Sunday.
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“It’s been known for decades that while people smoke for the nicotine, they die from the smoke,” he told me. “Yet the government persists in strategies to reduce exposure to nicotine instead of dealing with the real enemy.”
“We could stop the cigarette epidemic through the non-combustible alternatives to cigarettes.”
LISTEN: Why the government needs to shift its focus away from nicotine in the battle to convince Canadians to quit smoking
Longtime anti-smoking activist, Les Hagan, said Monday he does not want to see the fight against smoking tobacco pushed into the background by the preoccupation with legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.
The focus, then, should be on making sure we are battling the right enemy. Where there’s smoke, there’s death!
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