FORCES, TURCI, AND OUR RIGHT TO SMOKE

Supper Club Report:

Turci is a member of FORCES Canada, the non-profit organization dedicated to the preserving the right to smoke and to fighting tobacco prohibition and health fascism. He spoke at the April 19, 1997 supper club about the government attack on smokers which includes, but is not limited to, the banning of smoking in privately-owned restaurants and the restriction of advertising by the cigarette manufacturers.

According to Turci, the current crusade against smoking seems to be justified by the government and anti-smoking groups on two grounds.

One, second hand smoke is dangerous; and two, smoking related health care costs are an enormous burden on non-smoking taxpayers.

Turci focused his talk on these two arguments put forth by the anti-smoking crusaders. Turci questioned the legitimacy of the claim that second hand smoke is dangerous and in fact suggested that this claim is really a myth perpetuated by government officials and, more significantly, the many anti-smoking organizations who receive thousands upon thousands of taxpayers dollars.

Turci said the claims made about the dangers of second hand smoke are based on questionable studies - studies in which the raw data, methodology and scope of work are not available to the public for peer review or examination. For example, he cited the 1992 US EPA report on Passive Smoke, which was funded by the American Cancer Society. It is this report on which the anti-smoking crusaders claim that up to 50,000 deaths per year in the US are attributable to second hand smoke. Yet six years after its release, the raw database of this study has yet to be released for peer review and examination.

As another example, Turci showed the result of a request made under the US Freedom of Information Act for details on the data, methodology and scope of a government study which concluded that second hand smoke is dangerous.

What Turci and his organization received back was numerous blank and censored pages. "If the mountain of evidence [supporting the dangers of second hand smoke] is so real, why are the scientific community and the public denied the possibility of verification?", Turci asked.

Of the reports and studies available for review, Turci claimed many of them suggest that second hand smoke is not as dangerous as society has been led to believe. For example, Turci cited a 1989 study commissioned by the US Department of Transport which concluded that a passenger seated in the nonsmoking section of an airplane that allows smoking must sit there for 5 1/2 years to inhale the equivalent of one cigarette. 5 1/2 years! In a British Columbia government study on car emission, Turci claimed that the results of this study shows that driving a car downtown exposes the passenger to equal or worse dangers than sitting in a smoky cafe.

The second justification used by the anti-smoking crusaders is that smokers increase health care costs and are therefore a burden on the non-smoking taxpayers. Turci argued that this claim is refuted by governments themselves. He points out that while the Canadian federal government claims that smokers costs $3.5 billion a year in direct health care costs, the federal government, in another report, concluded that in 1995, of the $8 billion that Canadian spent on tobacco products, $4.96 billion went to the government. Do the math and one would have to conclude, Iike Turci, that "the government is making money on smokers".

Turci provided further support - a 1994 US Congressional Research Service report which concluded that the tax benefits of smokers combined with their shorter lifespan resulted in a gain to society in economic terms.

In addition to his points on the fallacious in the arguments put forth by government and health fascists to justify their actions, Turci also pointed out the dangers to liberty arising from this anti-smoking crusade. For example, Turci commented on: The logical extension of banning smoking in restaurants is banning smoking at homes where children are present. Far fetched? Turci told us that the Ontario Health Minister has said that parents who smoke in the home are guilty of child abuse.

Bill C-71, which not only threatens free speech by limiting commercial speech, but, according to Turci, also allows for search and seizure of tobacco products without warrant. Bill C-71 has been passed into Law. If they are successful on attacking smoking, the next to be attacked will be the fast food restaurants or high cholesterol diets.

Although Turci is a smoker, his involvement in FORCES and their fight against the government smoking crusade is not necessarily because he smokes, buy more importantly it is because, as Turci himself said at the supper club: "I love freedom and I hate fascism!"

by GORD DENUSIK

Reprinted with permission from WEST COAST LIBERTARIAN, 922 Cloverley St., North Vancouver, B.C. V7L 1N3 (annual subscription $20.)