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Abbotsford, November 26, 1997
LONDON DRUGS LTD. ATTENTION Mr. Dick Vollet, Retail Operation Manager Dear Sir: I am writing to you regarding the flier on smoking now distributed by your stores (enclosed). On behalf of FORCES Canada's members, and the Canadian smokers, I would like to point out the following: Statement from flyer: "Smoking is related to roughly 100,000 deaths a year in Canada. Cigarettes are considered to be a primary cause of hearth disease, strokes, bronchitis, pneumonia, lung cancer, and other concerns." 100,000 deaths a year? Where did you take that figure from? Even according to the highly controversial (and often declared manipulated) figures of the EPA, the yearly deaths attributable to smoking in the United States are slightly over 400,000. Since the population ratio USA/Canada is 10 to 1, your corporation is implying that cigarette smoke is responsible for 1,000,000 deaths in the USA. The unsubstantiated official death "toll" spoken of by the antismoking establishment in Canada is 40,000. Thus, this exceeds even the more spectacular lie ever published by the antismokers, to which your organization has offered its endorsement. Moreover, the "cause" to disease mentioned by the flier are statistical associations, for no cause and effect has been established by reputable scientific methods of verification, repeatability, and quantification. There is a difference between lynching hysteria and scientific reality, Mr. Vollet, and the duty of any serious informer of the public opinion is to report on both sides of any issue. Statement from flyer: "Nicorette is a nicotine-containing chewing gum. It has a very high success rate of helping smokers quit." Please define "very high success". So far, neither patches nor nicotine-filled chewing gum have been known to have but very little success in making smokers quit. The fact is that smoking is a habit, not an addiction, notwithstanding the noisy propaganda by the Ministry of Health, which is knowingly misleading the public in general and the smokers in particular into believing that they are "hooked" to some kind of heavy drug, thus directly creating business for the smoking cessation industry. The millions of smokers who have quit, have quit by themselves, simply by willpower, the most effective method of quitting, which unfortunately for you does not put any money into the pockets of the antismoking racket, Nicorette, or London Drugs. On behalf of our constituency, we demand that London Drugs immediately suspend the distribution of the flyer, for this clearly constitutes false advertisement. On a personal note, I believe that a department store has no business in getting involved in propaganda leading to misconceptions, and to the belittling of one quarter of the population of this country. I will make sure that myself, and any other acquaintance of mine will buy computers, cigarettes, and other goods somewhere else. With discrimination and intolerance being increasingly directed toward smokers, a dubious marketing ploy that rides the coattails of the antismoking movement is unacceptable. FORCES Canada is an international, non-tobacco-funded smokers' rights consumer organization based on membership and voluntary work. Awaiting your reply.
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