September 17, 2008 | In Politics |
Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, made an illogical and trivial proposal today to ban the sale of flavoured cigarillos (little cigars) in individual packages.
The motive behind this proposed legislation, according to Harper, is the popularity of individually-packaged tobacco products (at “kid-friendly prices”) among Canadian teenagers. But this is just one more of those dumb policies where you have to step back and ask yourself: “what are they really hoping to achieve?”
It’s already illegal to sell tobacco to minors, yet teens who want tobacco products (including good old fashioned non-flavoured cigarettes) always manage to get them. Forcing tobacco manufacturers to put cigarillos in packages of five or ten won’t prevent this from happening.
If a retailer is irresponsible enough to sell tobacco products to children in the first place, what’s to stop them from cracking open the government-mandated packages and selling individual cigarillos under the table? Ditto for private citizens who agree to purchase tobacco products for kids.
This legislation will not prevent children and teens from getting their hands on tobacco products. It will only serve to inconvenience adults who want to purchase a legal product in an individual package.
It’s parents and families, not the State, that are responsible for educating children about the dangers of tobacco products. Stupid and arbitrary regulations won’t help.
