TOBACCO SMOKE WILL CLEAR, DRUGS WON'T

There's probably not a lot of people who will argue over the Nova Central
School Board's decision to ban smoking on its property, particularly schools.

Last week, trustees voted unanimously in favour of banning puffing at all
schools, school board facilities, grounds and in board-owned vehicles. In
fact, some might question why it took this long to happen, and say the
board has been behind the rest of society on this.

After all, it's been a while now since tobacco inhalers have been
prohibited from lighting up in just about in every other public place,
indoors and out. The provincial government even implemented a ban on venues
like bingo hall, bars and restaurants, considered the last sanctuaries for
smokers.

Meanwhile, in some jurisdictions, students still have a place to go during
school hours to use a product that is supposed to be illegal for them to
obtain. It wouldn't have made sense to allow for that to continue.

However, the new rule approved by the board might just be procedure at this
point, since 25 out of 39 high schools in the district had already done
away with designated smoking areas on their own.

While the battle to prevent people from picking up the unhealthy habit of
smoking continues, and probably will be waged for many years, the fact is
fewer and fewer teens are becoming regular smokers.

When some citizens in the school district lobbied hard for this motion to
be tabled, one of the major impetuses was the notion the elimination of
student smoking areas would also extinguish a great deal of drug use. The
thought is smoking areas are -- the ban doesn't actually come into effect
until September -- -- prime markets for drug dealing.

That somewhat assumes smoking cigarettes goes hand-in-hand with smoking
joints, popping pills and ingesting whatever the drug-of-the-month might
be. But not all smokers are drug users, and not all drug users actually
smoke cigarettes.

As for the dealers, it is one less place where can they can solicit teens
in selling their illicit wares, but there are many other locales in our
communities where youth and young adults congregate.

The way we need to look at this is with the approach tobacco is just one of
the many drugs we as society have to combat. The ban on smoking in public
places is just one victory in that war. Marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and
crystal meth, among others, will continue to circulate, be dealt and sold,
with or without a small parcel of land where students can go and smoke on
school grounds without being suspended.

Let's clear the air of not only smoke, but also misconception, myths and
naivete.