Dear Mayor and Council members:

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. FORCES Canada is a membership-supported nonprofit organization devoted to fighting the current public and political hysteria of tobacco prohibitionism. We are not funded by the tobacco industry.

We do not promote smoking, but we vigorously support the right of choice of the citizen to do with his life what he sees fit.

As you are no doubt aware, the issue of municipal smoking bans is expected to be raised at the upcoming Union Of B.C. Municipalities meeting. Those favouring a province-wide ban on smoking in restaurants and pubs will ask your delegates to vote in support of such a measure.

We urge you to reject such a motion.

Why is this an important issue? And why should you use your vote to reject handing the provincial government a mandate for smoking prohibition?

• Contrary to the propaganda of the anti-smoker movement and our own Ministry of Health, there is ample scientific evidence that claims made about the dangers of second hand smoke by lobbyists for these smoking bans are bogus. Documentation is available upon request. A total ban on smoking in restaruants, pubs and other businesses is simply not justified on the grounds that public smoking presents an alarming public health danger.

• Moreover, the notion that "smokers are killing us" is a highly irresponsible one promoted by public health authorities who want to stop everyone from smoking -- and see the political advantage of convincing non-smokers that their smoking neighbours are "dangerous" people. Your vote against smoking bans will send a message that you do not condone scare tactics and a "witch-hunt" approach to public health policy..

• Proper ventilation -- in the form of modern, highly efficient air exchange systems -- offers a more than sufficient alternative to prohibition that will enhance the comfort of nonsmokers while protecting the interests of businesses and their smoking customers.

• The choice of smokers -- who represent one-quarter to one-third of the population -- as well as the choice of nonsmokers must be respected.

• The choice of business owners to cater to their clientele in the manner which they see fit must be respected. Some Greater Vancouver restaurants have closed because of smoking bans, others have lost their already thin profit margins and are barely hanging on. Pub owners estimate that smokers make up as much as 90 per cent of their clientele. A smoking ban, or the reduction of smoking area seating to a mere token, will destroy many of these businesses. A number of studies are now available which demonstrate the disastrous financial effect of smoking bans. Influential studies that have stated there is no negative effect on business have been proven false. Documentation is available upon request.

• Enforcement of blanket smoking bans is almost impossible, unless government is willing to invest tremendous financial resources -- and commit to the more or less continual harassment of hard-working business people and a large segment of the population. Other, much more important policing issues deserve our attention and resources. Let's not manufacture problems in our communities by creating a "prohibition era" environment. Don't force restaurants and pubs to choose between noncompliance (with the threat of prosecution), or bankruptcy.

• Prohibition almost always breeds criminal activity, as illicit opportunists come in to fill a market demand that can no longer be filled legally. If people wish to have a meal and a drink with a cigarette, there will be those outside of the properly licenced restaurant and pub industry who will provide it -- thereby siphoning revenues from legitimate businesses that have sometimes taken a lifetime to build.

• The recent U.S. "gunpoint deal" reached with U.S. tobacco companies is simply a formula for the indirect taxation of smokers. It will not affect the profits of tobacco companies, as the price of cigarettes will simply go up. B.C.'s initiative to sue tobacco companies is the first step towards the same indirect taxation scheme. These recent developments should not influence your decisions regarding smoking bans.

  Finally, we would like to make the commonsense observation that Canadians will not be persuaded to give up smoking by being relegated to the status of second-class citizenship. The anti-smoker lobby argues that encouraging the "social stigma" of smoking will assure the success of the repressive measures they continue to prescribe for legislators -- and lead to a purer, "smoke-free society by the Year 2000".

  They are wrong.

  We urge you not to support social division and institutionalized misinformation. We urge you to vote against smoking prohibition resolutions at the UBCM meeting, and in your own community.

  Finally, we invite you to find out more from FORCES Canada. We have an extensive database of documents and articles on smoking prohibition, smoking and health, secondhand smoke and health, ventilation and other matters of interest. Our database includes an extensive bibliography of published, peer-reviewed scientific studies that challenge many of the now-familiar claims made by the anti-smoker lobby. Please feel free to contact us by phone at (604) 854-6126 or fax (604) 854-6802.

  Thank you for your attention.

  Yours truly,

  
  Gian Turci,
  FORCES Canada

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