Jump to full article: Trinidad Express (tt), 2009-11-29
Author: Sheila Rampersad
Intro: By the time you read this, the Tobacco Control Bill will be an Act, awaiting only the proclamation of the President before it is a punishable offence to smoke just about anywhere. The Act, I expect, will join those preventing littering and mandating the use of seatbelts (among many other bits of legislation relating to motoring behaviour) that, on paper, make the country appear awfully progressive but which in reality are seldom enforced.
The Tobacco Control Act will stand proudly as another law that will be utilised by law enforcement for nuisance benefit. . . .
That the dangers of second hand smoke are scientifically contested, that as far as I am aware there is yet to be a death certificate stating cause of death as second hand smoking or smoking even are issues far too heavy for us here to consider. It is considerably easier to parrot internationally fashionable legislation and issue snide remarks about the powerful tobacco lobby without reference to the powerful anti-smoking lobby that has over simplified the issue of smoking in public in order to generate widespread support for its well-financed agenda.
. . .
What began as a fair and reasonable campaign to encourage smokers to respect the wishes of non-smokers has evolved into outright hostility by anti-smoking activists and the demonisation of anyone who chooses to smoke. This has worked so well that smokers themselves have become voiceless victims, huddling to tief a smoke, targets of unprovoked verbal sanctions, pariahs who have also internalised these messages and consider themselves engaging in 'a nasty habit'.
This authoritarian piece of legislation undermines the civil liberties of citizens to an unacceptable extent and legitimises discrimination against smokers to an extent that infringes on their human rights. This is not the same as saying that there ought to be no control at all on smoking or that all the data relating to the risks of smoking is inaccurate.
But to impose such hefty fines, to consider outlawing the sale of single cigarettes, to enter people's homes and legislate on the consumption of, I repeat, a legal product, is surely going too far. But then again, if there is one country in the world these days where going too far is commonplace, Trinidad and Tobago appears to be it.
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