WHY DON'T WE JUST MAKE SMOKING ILLEGAL?

Those loopy British Columbians are at it again. This time they're up in
arms over cigarette makers. The B.C. government wants those nasty tobacco
companies to pay up for making their customers sick, and they want other
provinces to join them in their fight.

Happily, Ontario has declined.

B.C. claims it is taking this action in the name of future generations.
They want the money, an unspecified sum, to help them defray the costs for
B.C.'s anti-smoking campaigns and to recover some of the $400 million the
province spends annually to treat patients with smoke-related illnesses.

How B.C.'s health minister, Penny Priddy, must have rejoiced when it was
announced that U.S. cigarette makers recently reached a $319 billion
settlement with eight states. More loopiness.

Sure smoking makes people sick. Smoking is a nasty, corrosive, profoundly
addictive habit. It does bad things to your tissues, your blood vessels,
your heart, your bones, your nervous system, your brain. It does make you
sick and if you do it long enough, it will kill you.

But should we be suing the cigarette makers? Last I heard manufacturing and
selling cigarettes isn't illegal. Smoking cigarettes isn't illegal. So why
would any thinking person hold the tobacco companies responsible for the
devastation their product causes?

If smoking is such a dangerous activity, our legislators should do their
jobs and ban it rather than trying to play both ends against the middle. It
seems to me that in a free society we don't penalize the producer of a
legitimate product for the effect it has on those who choose to buy it. In
a reasonable society individuals take responsibility for the choices they
make.

And rather than simply applauding the B.C. action, Canada's health
community would serve us all better by mounting a strong lobbying effort to
ban smoking.

I used to smoke. At one time, my way of life revolved around the timing of
my next cigarette: Pulling that sharp gray smoke into my lungs was the
first thing I did in the morning and the last thing at night. A telephone
conversation was impossible without the smoke curling lazily from the end
of a cigarette. And meals were enjoyable because a cigarette tasted better
after eating.

My skin had a gray tinge, I got bronchitis twice every winter, and I denied
up and down that I had a smoker's cough. That was 16 years ago.

The cigarette makers did not hold a gun to my head to encourage me to visit
my friendly corner store to pick up that pack-and-a-half a day.

My mother, my friends, my doctor, all urged me to quit. But I wouldn't
consider it. I was young and I didn't believe anything could hurt me.

It's not that I disbelieved the propaganda about how damaging smoking can
be. I simply didn't care. Holding that cigarette between my fingers,
feeling the rush of the nicotine coursing through me was too important in
my life.

It didn't matter to me then how much money the cigarette companies were
dropping into government coffers, and suing them now to get even more money
out of them will not have the slightest effect on dedicated smokers.

Do we sue car companies for polluting the atmosphere and causing health
problems? Do we force the distilleries to put out for alcohol-related
diseases? Do we sue soft drink and candy companies for turning our children
into sugar junkies?

As a society we've got to make up our minds about this business of smoking.
Either it's acceptable or it isn't.

Let's stop trying to make our courts do our dirty work.

Elvira Cordileone is assistant to The Star's Ombud.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski