SMOKING!

Dan Murphy, Mr. Pundit, The Province Newspaper, B.C. - Editorial Page - 10 January 1999

FORCES Canada comments

1999 will be the year of the showdown between the B.C. government and Big Tobacco.

It'll be a doozy.

It will have all the elements of a Japanese monster movie except the giant fire-breathing moth.

On one side you have a shifty, calculating cabal that through the years has earned the disdain of decent society.

On the other, you've got the tobacco companies.

B.C. introduced two pieces of legislation last year aimed at getting more money from Big Tobacco. Another new law required the companies to measure 40 components in cigarette smoke.

Jeff Gaulin is spokesman for the B.C. health ministry.

Is B.C. now in the forefront in taking on the tobacco companies?

Jeff Gaulin: "Absolutely. We're certainly leading Canada. And we're certainly one of the most aggressive jurisdictions in all of the world."

Aren't the tobacco companies helping give your government the perfect citizen - one that's taxed mightily and then drops dead early?

Jeff Gaulin: "The perfect citizen is one who leads a long, healthy, productive life, with a good quality of life. Unfortunately, that's not the case for people who are addicted to cigarettes."

Gaulin speaks with a fervor that this government usually reserves for explaining budget shortfalls.

The B.C. government makes about $480 million a year in tobacco taxes. And it can smell more.

A lot of U.S. states have been suing Big Tobacco and coming away with large chunks of money.

So B.C. has launched a suit to recover tobacco-related health-care costs that the health ministry estimates anywhere from $300 million to $500 million, depending on how much secondary smoke they've had to put up with that day.

If the province won such a suit, it could push the price of cigarettes to $800 a pack.

This would discourage teenagers from smoking. Or force them to become international arms smugglers to pay for a pack-a-day habit.

The B.C. health ministry would like you to think that tobacco companies are Satan.

David Laundy's address is 666. His office is on the 13th Floor. It hangs ominously over Vancouver's Christ Church Cathedral.

Laundy's job is to convince you that the tobacco companies are not Satan.

His previous jobs were to convince you that the Royal Bank, the Vancouver Stock Exchange and Bill Bennett were not Satan.

Laundy is a vice president of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council. He's opened up shop in B.C. to defend Big Tobacco in the face of the government's assault.

"I think what we really see in the program of this government is that it seems to be more anti-tobacco company than it is anti-tobacco." Laundy says.

"We just think this attack on the companies is the height of hypocrisy, because the government can outlaw tobacco tomorrow if they wanted to. All of the activity that goes on is under rules and regulations that are established either by the federal or provincial governments. And the companies play by the rules."

"In the B.C. context, the government makes 8 times what the companies do on the sale of tobacco every year."

"We agree completely with the government informing the public about the risks associated with smoking. We agree completely with the government's desire to stop or at least diminish the smoking habits of kids. We agree completely that the public has the right to know the ingredients that are in the products that they buy. We agree with all of that."

"What we find difficult is the attack on the companies for producing this product."

So the tobacco companies are, in turn, suing the B.C. government over one of the new tobacco acts - the Tobacco Damages and Health-Care Recovery Act. They are suing because the name of the act is too damn long.

Also, they say the act unfairly stacks the decks in favor of the government in court cases brought against tobacco companies.

Jeff Gaulin: "Smoking is a danger to society. It causes illness. It clogs up our health care system. It puts a burden on our society where we're having to pay for illnesses and care that is completely preventable."

Do you smoke?

Jeff Gaulin: "No, I don't."

Does the health minister?

Jeff Gaulin: "No, she does not."

Does she chew, use snuff, abuse nicotine patches?

Jeff Gaulin: "Nope."

After talking 5 minutes with Gaulin, I want to drink bootlegged hooch, smoke a cigarette, become a lap dancer and pull that tag that it's illegal to remove off of my mattress/

Unmitigated righteousness can have that affect on you.

It might be why - in the face of an ever-expanding government campaign against teen smoking this decade - the number of smoking teens has actually gone up.

Are you folks at the health ministry open to suggestions on how to keep kids from smoking?

Jeff Gaulin: "We're always looking. If there's a good idea out there, a message that would help people think seriously about the dangers of smoking and might get them to quit, sure, we'd love to hear it."

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