Tobacco.org

LETTER: Giving kids too much credit 

Brian Jones rails against the decision of the government of Newfoundland to sue the tobacco industry (”Lawsuit, schmawsuit,” The Telegram, Dec. 10), saying: “Individually, people freely decide whether or not to smoke, and bear the consequences.”

What he doesn’t say is that Canadians make that decision, on average, at the age of 12. And that almost every one of these children say they won’t be smoking in five years. Most end up being wrong. Half of those long-term smokers will be killed prematurely, a death arising from a decision they made at a tender age.

If children don’t properly evaluate the addictiveness of tobacco, how can we say that they freely decide to smoke?

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