More on smoking!

[cowman]

In Alberta our health minister is making some pretty strong noises about raising prices $1.75/pack. Which brings the price up to around $7.75. The federal and provincial governments will then take about $6.55/pack right off the top in taxes. Now the tobbacco companies pay taxes, so do retailers,distributors,advertizers etc. and I assume the tobbacco farmer. So how much does the government actually get from a pack of cigarettes?
Then Gary Mar(Alberta health minister) has the nerve to rip the tobbacco companys? Saying they are, like evil!!! Maybe he needs to look in the mirror??? I mean who is making the most money here off this deadly vice?
Why is it the government won't help people quit? I believe they plow a certain amount of their profits from gambling back into rehabilitation programs, so why not tobbacco? The fact of the matter is tobbacco is a cash cow for our governments and they are the ones who truly benefit from its use! Have you ever noticed how all the things organized crime used to run the government has taken over? The poor old Mafia and Hell's Angels have been pretty well squeezed out of all the evil criminal stuff by our own sweet governments!! I remember when the Hell's Angels came to Alberta, Stockwell Day(he was justice minister then) had a big rant about how we didn't want any organized crime in Alberta! I guess they didn't want any competition!!

[jensco]

Well, the government had those wonderful commercials during the Olympics...Elvis Stoyko saying he gave his life to skating not smoking...They must be helping people quit smoking.
(Since sarcasm doesn't come through the internet well, this is tongue in cheek!)
This is a Health Canada promotion. The same part of the government that wants to charge smokers premiums for health care.

I'm afraid you have identified another aspect where government is contradictory.

[wilagro]

Another rip-off by this government. The anti-smoking lobbyists are advocating huge increases for the tobacco tax. For those of us addicted, this presents us with a choice...either pay up or quit. Smokers already pay more than their fair share of taxes. The do-gooders are in control. Know any good smugglers???

[cowman]

wilagro: No I don't know any smugglers but it seems to me it could be lucrative! Some of these young guys who aren't too keen on manual labor should look into it!
Down east the Indians kind of have this business all sown up. Unfortunately in Alberta our Indians make too much money on their oil royalties to be bothered with cigarrettes!

[rookie]

Well... maybe not all ' firstnations ' live around the highway 2 oil fields, but we all live in a world where we don't have to smoke. Sure its easy money for the feds... and it just got easier.

[cowman]

Rookie: I do not smoke but once I did. I was able to quit quite easily but I know some people have a real struggle. I don't think non-smokers understand just how addictive tobbacco is. They say tougher to kick than heroin or cocaine. It just seems to me the government is preying on peoples misfortune instead of trying to help them.

[rookie]

Cowman...first, hope you aren't up this early in the barnyard...second no worries, I live with a smoker and we actually have several 'acquaintances' who are recovering addicts ( long story not for these pages, because they didn't just use smokes )Its tough
for people with addiction. No question. And I know it must be frustrating for the countless addicted public to get pushed around with cost hikes... I am just trying to be solution focused and wonder where the answer is. And will it ever change ? Who will be the ones who can ?

[cowman]

I'm always up early but it was -36 here last night so I did the early morning check. The boy took the 1 P.M. check. I actually really enjoy calving at this time of the year. I have a big calving barn with all the goodies...from the days when we were in the bull business.
My Dad smoked all his life and he just could not quit. It probably killed him. But he truly loved it and who is to say that is wrong...we all make our choices in this life and we all live(or die) with the consequences! I just don't like mealy mouthed politicians going on about how they are so pure in their intentions when in fact they are knowingly benefitting from a deadly vice!

[Muttley]

We all talk about taxes on tobacco, well as a non smoker I should be saying who cares but I do worry what next they are going to tax. Whatever it is may be something that I enjoy.
As for killing us I do not remember the last person around my neck of the woods that died from tobacco. It seems we are getting every kind of disease and cancer these days imaginable. I beleive our lifestyles and perservatives and all the chemicals are probably a bigger killer than a cigarette.

[cowman]

You very well could be right about the smoking thing. A lot of people smoked before the war and they were okay, but then there were no herbicides or radiation. I remember my Dad telling me about when they left Italy all the soldiers were stripped and dusted with DDT. He said they weren't lousy but it was some sort of experiment. He said a lot of them got really sick! Now somehow this doesn't strike me as the most healthy thing to do!!
But common sense tells us smoking can't be all that good for us? I mean how can filling up with smoke 20 or 30 times a day be good for you?

[Muttley]

You are right it can't be all that healthy. I myself am bother by smoke more and more as I get older. I find myself leaving functions because of the smoke.
My wife's family smoke like steam engines, when they leave a house it just stinks up terribly.
We (had) a cousin who smoked for 90 years, the family said it would get him, well it finally did he passed away at 96 from lung cancer. Kinda makes you consider wanting to smoke doesn't it?

[rookie]

AS a kid I watched my Dad spray the crops and shook my head... He used to smoke too. He is 71 and is Climbing over fences still just as easy as I do. I have sprayed more acres now than he ever has and I still shake my head. A friend of mine farms in South Dakota and on a recent visit he was telling me about all of his neighbours who cary cancer insurance. Point is now-a-days, I figure if my partner doesn't quit smoking, its an even bet who might outlast whom... Too bad we don't have the heat units to grow the tobacco :-)

[cowman]

There actually used to be a guy who advertized in the Western Producer for info on how to grow your own tobacco...I think it could work. I mean look at all the dope being grown! They say it is B.C.'s biggest crop!!!
Give it a few more years and tobacco could be outlawed and marijuana could be wide open. So is marijuana good for your health? It must be if the federal government is growing it!! Or maybe it's just that all those old babyboomer hippies who are now running the government never got weaned off it?