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Jump to full article: Macleans Magazine, 2008-04-23
Author: FROM THE EDITORS * April 23, 2008
Intro: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty revealed . . .
"Science has demonstrated that these power walls are effective at enticing kids [to smoke]," he told reporters this week, "so we want to get beyond that." . . .
In the name of science we are to believe that, like the sight of a lady's ankle in a previous era, the mere glimpse of a pack of cigarettes will bring on a paroxysm of uncontrollable urges. This isn't science, it's political symbolism.
From a "scientific" perspective, the massive dichotomy between the retailing of cigarettes and alcohol in Ontario is a mystery. According to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, the direct and indirect costs of tobacco and alcohol abuse are nearly identical. Smoking is responsible for very large and obvious health care costs. Drinking has a massive impact on law enforcement as well as accidental deaths, not to mention its own substantial costs to the health care system. The nationwide damage wreaked by tobacco is estimated at $17 billion. For alcohol, it's about $14.5 billion.
If McGuinty really wanted to base his government's substance abuse policies on science, he would regulate the sale of booze and smokes in an equivalent fashion, befitting their equal toll on society.
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