The Ontario government has escalated the war on smokers with new bans on smoking on patios and playgrounds as well as prohibiting the sale of tobacco on post-secondary campuses.
While I can understand the first two points, my question is this: why does the Ontario government think its role is to tell adults what they can and can’t put into their bodies past the age of 19?
It’s not as though it’s some little-known fact that cigarettes are bad for your health.
Public health campaigns have done a very good job over the last few decades of making sure everyone knows just what kind of horrible effects smoking will have on your body.
The fact is, though, I don’t care.
When I smoke a cigarette, I make an informed choice to risk cancer and heart disease in the name of relaxing for a few moments.
Now, the government is trying to take that choice away from me by restricting my access to a legal substance that I can legally inhale.
Is the idea to keep cigarettes away from first-years? In which case, isn’t it better to put the onus on campus businesses to be more diligent in checking IDs rather than driving students to convenience stores where the universities can’t have oversight?
Perhaps it’s about lessening the burden smoking-related illnesses have on the health care system? If that’s the case, why not ban unhealthy foods?
Fast food can be as bad for you as cigarettes. Why don’t we close down the food courts and only allow sandwiches and carrot sticks on campuses?
If these arguments don’t hold water, then the only conclusion I can draw is that this move is nothing more than an ideological stance against smoking, a further attempt by a paternalistic state to force itself on the private lives of its citizens.
I can understand trying to prevent second-hand smoke. People walking out of the library didn’t make the choice to inhale toxic substances, but the degree to which the government is striving to prevent me from making “bad decisions” is ridiculous.
The government put a picture of a rotting lung on my pack and I still chose to smoke every last cigarette.
Now it’s trying to take that choice away by forcing me to wait for a bus or walk for a half-hour in the snow so I can have the minor pleasure of a smoke between classes?
The last time governments tried to legislate against “bad decisions” by outlawing alcohol, it did nothing more than generate violent criminal enterprises that ran amok for a decade.
When people were faced with the choice between not drinking and drinking moonshine brewed in Uncle Jesse’s bathtub, they chose Uncle Jesse’s moonshine.
I’m not saying people should grow tobacco in their dorm rooms as some bizarre act of rebellion. I’m just saying people aren’t suddenly going to stop smoking because it gets a little harder to buy cigarettes.
At the very least, as I walk back from the Quickie on Bank Street in 10 feet of snow, I’ll have a pack of Belmonts to keep me warm.
