BUT WHAT ABOUT DOUGHNUTS?

Talk about supreme irony.

News item 1. The government is poised to bring tough new laws
outlawing the smoking of a legal product - tobacco.

Item 2. Two weeks ago, thousands of people camped out on the lawn of
the legislature and smoked an illegal product -- marijuana. And no
one was arrested.

Not just that, the government rakes in billions every year from the
sale of another addictive product -- alcohol. Yet you don't see a
tightening of licensing laws. If anything, it's the opposite.

Childhood obesity rates are reaching an epidemic. Sure, Dalton
McGuinty's government has banned junk food in schools. But do you see
a tax on fat?

Yet just 13 days from now, the government will implement a
province-wide ban on smoking. You will be able to munch away on
double-glazed chocolate doughnuts in public with impunity. Sure, no
one's died from inhaling second-hand cupcake crumbs. That isn't the point.

What about the example it sets to young people when they see adults
chowing down in public places on cream puffs and custard slices? How
can you expect them to take nutrition seriously when people are
openly indulging in high sodium, high caloric treats like potato
chips? But smokers? Wicked, wicked. Let's pick on them. The
nico-nazis ban cigarettes, but turn a blind eye to pot. Go figure. If
you think pot isn't as harmful as nicotine, think again.

"The reality is you are lighting something on fire and putting it in
your mouth and it's just not a good thing to do in any case," says
Dr. Atul Kapur, an Ottawa ER doctor and president of Physicians for a
Smoke-Free Canada.

He says the effects of smoking a little cannabis are the same as
smoking a lot of nicotine.

"They don't have 20 joints a day, but they inhale deeper and they
keep it in their lungs longer, so the estimates are that three or
four joints a day may have the same harmful effect to your lungs as a
pack a day of regular smokes," said Kapur.

The wages of legalized sin are big bucks. Government gets $1.7
billion from gaming, $1.2 billion in taxes from booze. They got $1.4
billion in the last fiscal year from smokes. That's forecast to rise
to $1.7 billion with the recent hike in taxes -- the same amount it's
estimated smoking costs the health system.

Obese people put a huge strain on government services over a long
time span, not just for healthcare but for social services. Extremely
fat people are unable to work.

What about booze? We all know the deadly diseases, drunk driving and
social problems associated with drinking. Yet this province is the
enabler when it comes to feeding the addiction of alcoholics. The
more they drink, the more money the government rakes in. Ditto for
gambling, which is basically a tax on people who can't do math.

So the government makes a big song and dance about getting smokers to
quit, but it shakes them down for even more tax cash as it does so.
Yet it encourages gambling with fancy casinos and it recently
announced it would be opening more liquor stores. Why? Because that's
how you make money from booze and gaming. The government acts as an
enabler with obesity as well. Instead of telling fat people to put
down the fork, it pays for bariatric surgery, or stomach stapling,
for the morbidly obese.

As for the hypocrisy of potheads flouting the law on the lawns of
Queen's Park, Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson says there is
nothing he can do because it's not his job to direct police.

"I don't condone that kind of behaviour because (a) possession of
marijuana is illegal and (b) you are smoking it, which is also
harmful for your health and (c) consuming marijuana is also harmful
to your health," he said. Watson said 16,000 people die annually as a
result of smoking, 2,000-3,000 of those are due to second-hand smoke.

Meanwhile, Health Minister George Smitherman, who admits to having
had a drug habit, is now telling us to stop smoking a legal product.

It's enough to drive you to booze.