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Tobacco's last breath good news 

But the Cancer Society wants to halt smuggling.
Jump to full article: London (Ontario) Free Press (ca), 2008-03-27
Author: JOHN MINER, SUN MEDIA

Intro:

The demise of Ontario tobacco farming will be good news because it eliminates a shield used by cigarette manufacturers to stall government action, anti-tobacco activists say.

Every time the industry was threatened they trotted out tobacco farmers to fight back, Garfield Mahood, executive director of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, said yesterday during a presentation to The London Free Press editorial board.

"It would be, 'Look at the devastation that will happen in Tillsonburg and Delhi.' Tobacco farmers were used for years as pawns," he said.

Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst and lawyer for the Canadian Cancer Society, said Ontario farmers weren't competitive compared to farmers in developing countries because of higher labour costs and the cold Canadian climate.

If it hadn't been for the cigarette manufacturers propping up Ontario farmers by buying tobacco at above world prices, the industry would have disappeared long ago, Cunningham said.

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