EDITORIAL – New ciggie warnings will make smoking stigma even bigger

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

NEW CIGARETTE WARNINGS are the law as of today, though it will take time to phase them all in. For the first time, warnings will be printed on individual ciggies, making Canada the first country to mandate such an approach.

Supposedly, words such as “Cigarettes cause cancer” and “Poison in every puff” will make smokers think twice about lighting up. Maybe not the long-timers who are so addicted that almost nothing will stop them from taking a puff, but the newbies who are just getting into it.

Studies, say the politicians and experts, back up the theory. We already have warnings on packages but putting them on individual cigarettes is supposed to ensure that no one can avoid seeing the message.

There might be something to it. A smoker or potential smoker might be able to ignore warnings on a package but there’s something about putting a carcinogenic product in your mouth —when it says right on it that it could kill you — that really brings the message home.

I remain perplexed about the contradictions between attaching a state-sponsored stigma to tobacco while trying to remove the stigma from other drugs like opioids, cocaine and heroin.

It’s made further confusing by the fact that one is legal and the other example isn’t. The provincial government has gone so far as to decriminalize possession of small amounts of illicit drugs in order to make users feel better about themselves.

But nicotine addicts? Spare them no mercy. And that’s as it should be. Cigarettes kill 48,000 people every year in Canada, far more than illicit drugs. Tobacco use is a health scourge that is properly recognized as such.

Health authorities have high hopes the new warnings will dramatically bring down the percentage of Canadians who use tobacco. It will be fascinating to see future reports on whether it’s effective.

But while we’re waiting, we should seriously reconsider our determination to remove the stigma from everything else.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.