Before commenting on the Posts call for banning cigarettes we need to clear up one major point: does the Post in anyway have financial interests (potential profits) in the nicotine replacement industry?

Cigarettes are merely the most widely used method to feed the addiction to nicotine of nicotine addicts. Unless nicotine is added to the illegal substances list along side crack, heroin, meth etc. most addicts will merely switch from cigarettes to an alternative, legal, method of feeding their addiction. Perhaps becoming patrons of safe injections sites in Vancouver?

Should the Post’s call for making illegal cigarettes and not nicotine (the additctor) be merely an oversight, I am willing to support the Post’s call for adding nicotine to the list of illegal substances and for a prohibition on alcohol.

Not because I think that prohibition or illegalization are good ideas or effective ways to deal with addiction. Rather I think it would prove very salient and educational to the public about, our current policies on addiction and illegalization of those drugs we choose to name as illegal.

I want to urge the Post to stand solidly behind its call for prohibition of alcohol and illegalization of nicotine. Assuming its position is not merely a veiled attempt to get in on the profits, political points and bucks to be made out of the illegalization of drugs.

The post’s original opinion Friday March 21, 2008

The provincial government is continuing its attack on smoking, second-hand cigarette smoke and the people who continue to puff – all in the name of improving health and by extrapolation, reducing healthcare costs and Workers’ Compensation Board claims.

Yet the senior governments won’t do the one thing that would ultimately be the best thing for all accounts – make smoking illegal.

The provincial government ads proclaiming “improvements to B.C.’s tobacco control laws” will “protect the health of all British Columbians and their communities” but doesn’t say what the law’s all about … spin doctors proclaiming a government’s dedication to health in time for the Olympics while costing pub patrons their entertainment and pub owners their profits.

So what about smoking rooms and cigar stores? And what about drinking? It’s unhealthy too. Will the government tell us all how to live?

Smoking is legal.