There’s a new element in the smoking debate.
Cigarette smoking kills tens of thousands of Canadians every year.
I am on record several times as saying it’s too bad there is not one politician in this entire country with the fortitude to suggest a bill making cigarette smoking illegal.
I know, I know — you’re already texting to accuse me of wanting a nanny state and telling me how it’ll just mean a big market for the black market.
Well, in a surprising move, in of all places, Hawaii, two Democrats and one Republican have a joint bill to ban cigarettes. It’s already passed first reading.
At the moment, you have to be 21 there to buy cigarettes. Under this bill, next year, the age goes up to 30. By 2022 you have to be 50 years old, and by 2024 you’d have to be 100.
Does that sound ridiculous?
What’s really ridiculous is that it’s legal to buy something that kills so many people and ties up so many hospital beds with so much pain and suffering.
I can hardly wait to hear the tobacco companies try to convince us to keep letting it happen.
That argument should be a wowie in Maui.
Aloha and let me know what you think.
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