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There’s no sin in hiking SIN taxes |
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Written by Al Hollingsworth
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Thursday, 25 June 2009 |
So the smokers and the shopkeepers, those who sell the cancer sticks, have their knickers in a knot after the new NDP government followed through on a Rodney MacDonald initiative and raised the taxes on tobacco products. My only criticism is that the tax increase was too low.
For years I struggled with the addiction, burning away thousands of dollars on cigarettes and, probably slowly destroying my body with each puff. I would justify it by glibly saying “Might as well smoke here as in the hereafter.”
I grew up in an age when just about everybody smoked. The cost of a package of 20 cigarettes was thirty-three cents.
There were no health warnings - hell, my doctor smoked during medical appointments! When I was 12 years of age, I was offered a cigarette to see if it would “make me sick.” This wasn’t out behind the barn, it was in my home. I smoked that butt and tens of thousands more over the next 49 years.
When I quit, over 10 years ago, I was really hooked, a two-pack a day man.
For years, especially with the increase in public education around the health risks of smoking tobacco products, I wanted to quit. I knew it was slowly killing me but I was hooked. No matter what I tried, nothing would help me kick the habit.
Just prior to successfully butting out, I had a two-or-three-time-a-day routine with one of my bosses, Kevin McNamara. He was Deputy Minister of Labour and I was the communications director. Each day we would take these breaks, go down to the main floor, enter the cafeteria, grab a coffee and light up.
One morning, it dawned on me that it had been several days since we met up for a puff and a bit of gossip. I stuck my head into his office and asked if he was coming down for a break.
He smiled, and said, no he had given up cigarettes. He went on to confess that he was using Zyban, an anti-depressant which had recently been discovered to decrease the urge in smokers to light up – an amazing and unexpected side effect.
Rather than bemoan the loss of my smoking buddy, I made one of the most important telephone calls of my life. I picked up Bell’s invention, called Dr. Eric Hanley’s office and made an appointment. I wanted a prescription for Zyban.
I didn’t have to twist his arm or beg permission – Dr Hanley was happy to write the Rx – the piece of paper that would change my life.
Zyban is an interesting drug. At first you continue to smoke while taking the medication. If it has the desired effect, and I am told it does for most, the urge to smoke will gradually leave. In my case I was in the second week of taking the small pill when I arrived at work one day only to realize that I had forgotten my cigarettes. That night, when I arrived home, I touched a package of cigarettes for the last time. Walking over to where I had left the package, I picked it up, and threw it in the garbage. To this day, I can say in complete honesty that I have never once craved a cigarette.
Colour me lucky.
One of the things I learned after I quit was that before I gave up the filthy habit, I stunk. I didn’t realize it until the first time I stepped onto an elevator with smokers. They reeked of stale tobacco. “My God,” I thought, “I smelled like that.” How embarrassing! Had I realized that while I was a smoker, I would like to think that I would have quit cold turkey, Zyban or no Zyban.
The point is maybe, just maybe, this most recent tax hike will cause a few more tortured souls to quit smoking. And if even one person’s life is saved or their quality of life improved because they gave up the killer habit before it was too late, then the tax increase will have been well worth it. With that in mind, how could any thinking individual condemn the tax increase on tobacco products?
(Al Hollingsworth is a retired journalist and broadcaster)
Note: Smoking is a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, cancer, and respiratory disease.
Estimates suggest that smoking contributes to over 47,000 deaths a year in Canada.
- Source: Health Canada
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