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On March 15, 1999, I smoked my last cigarette. At that point I had smoked for 49 years and had hit the two-pack-a-day plateau. It wasn’t a level I wanted to achieve, not in the least. For years I had wanted to quit, but I simply could not. Like everyone else who lit up the weed, I was hooked.
Like millions of other Canadians, nicotine had a death (in more ways than one) grip on me. I knew it was killing me, but I lacked the will power to stop. Then along came a miracle drug called Zyban. In my case, it was the assist I needed, and after a week or so on the medication, I suddenly lost my desire, no, make that my intense craving, for tobacco.
From that day in 1999, I have honestly never craved a cigarette. In fact, I have a lot of difficulty being in the same room as a smoker. When a smoker gets on an elevator, or sits next to me on the Link, my first thought is “God, I used to smell like that.” I am convinced that if the dwindling number of smokers in this province could get one whiff of themselves, we would be a smoke free province.
Perhaps my history with the evil introduced to the world on July 27, 1586 by Sir Walter Raleigh gives me a bit of perspective on the subject. While I am all for the banning of smoking in public places, as well as anywhere near children, I think the zealots who having been pushing the envelope have overstepped their bounds with their draconian regulations covering the sale of tobacco in Nova Scotia.
What the government regulators are doing to Mader’s Tobacco Store in Kentville is dead wrong. Bob Gee, the store owner, refuses to hide the product he is selling in this – um - tobacco store. Thus he is breaking the latest commandment: thou shalt not display tobacco products in pristine Nova Scotia.
Why should he, or other store operators be forced to cover their inventory, this silly rule notwithstanding. Tobacco products are legal. To me, those four words should guide the judge who will rule on this suit. As long as the provincial government allows the sale of tobacco products, and collects and spends the tax revenues generated from their sale, how can the sellers be challenged?
It is not like Gee is out there dressed like a cigar, waving to passersby and inviting them in to light up. He doesn’t even have signs or products in the windows of his store to incite those of legal age to come in and buy a pack or two, nor does he allow minors to enter the premises unless accompanied by an adult.
As far as I can determine, Mr. Gee is acting in a responsible manner. Those who enter his store are looking to buy cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, etc. I wish for their sakes they were not, but they are of legal age and in making these purchases they are breaking no laws. So why then are we hassling the folks at Mader’s? It’s about time some of the politicians and senior bureaucrats grew some balls and stood up to the anti-smoking zealots. I don’t like smoking, and I really don’t want to be within breathing distance of those who smoke. But until it is illegal to do so, smokers in this province have every right to buy and use tobacco products. Included in this should be the right to see what they are buying.
(Al Hollingsworth is a retired journalist who may not smoke here, but the zealots probably believe will smoke hereafter)
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