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Stop smoking

¥F’S TIME to make a strong stand
against peddiing cigarettes to children.
A survey in September conducted on
behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society, the
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
and the Canadian Council on Smoking and
Health (CCSH) showed that 93% of those
polled in B.C. opposed selling cigarettes to
minors. According to the survey, B.C. res-
idents think cigarette sales to children
should be controlled by using a photo ID
system, fining stores caught selling ciga-
rettes to minors and establishing a system
of tobacco retail licences. There was alse
strong support from survey respondents
for reducing the number of tobacco ¢ .:ilets
and banning the sale of cigarettes in small
packs containing fewer than 20 cigarettes.
The survey’s results mirror a growing

concern over the increase in smoking
among minors. Along with alcohol, tobac-
co is one of the biggest drug zisks facing
young people today. According to CCSH
statistics, 20% of 12- to 17-year-olds
smoke an average of 14 cigarettes a day;
8% of 10- to 14-yeur-olds smoke daily.

People who start smoking at younger
ages are more likely to keep smoking, and
the longer they keep smoking the more
likely they are to become another of the
almost 50,300 Canadians per year who die
from smoking-related illnesses.

A proviacial government committee is
currently pondering the reguiations that
will go into the Tobacco Sales Act. For the
good health of B.C. and its youth, iet’s
hope those regulations set some tough an-
ti-smoking guidelines.

LETTER OF THE DAY

Dr. Peter gave human face to AIDS

” Dear Editor:

With regards to Dr. Peter, evi-
dently some people have difficult
getting past the implications of his
lifestyle,

I don’t believe that his intention
was to condone his actions or
vindicate hirnself as a hero.

., His decision to chart his demise
In a very public way was an
unselfish attempt to bring a
human focus to the HIV virus,
and to serve as a warning to
others who risk infection yet sould

avoid it.

Where many in his position un-
derstandably retreat into private
worlds of suffering, Dr. Peter
opened his up to scrutiny and crit-
icism.

What had he himself to gain in
exhibiting his pain and his
deteriorating condition?

He did not want us to don
blinders, shielding ourselves from
the realities of AIDS; what he did
want was to show us the suf-
fering, the consequences of un-

protected sex with ANYONE in
this day and age.

His sexuai orientation was not
the issue. His personality was not
the issue.

His willingness to die under a
microscope, to create awareness
even when the pain was overtak-
ing his spirit, is what gave him
ignity and is what I applaud him
or.

Alexandra Carr
North Vancouver

Publishor............ . Peter Speck
Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw
Associate Editor Noel Wright
Sales & Marketing Director. Linda Stewart
Comptroller . Doug Foot

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Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Lid. All fights reserved.

Secret ‘health

care’ te

take

over your kids

ALMOST UNNOTICED both by the media and, it seems,
by Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, our socialist masters
recently sneaked on to the statute book its Section 2
amendment to Bill 81, the Infants Act.

This innocent-sounding bit of
legislation removes from parents
one of their last controlling rights
over the well-being of their kids
in these ‘‘cool’’ 1990s. It also sets
the stage for Big Brother — not
mom or dad — to eventually
shape politically correct young
minds.

I’ve got to be kidding, you say?
Please read on.

The amendment allows a child
of ANY age now to seek “‘heaith
care” treatment without informing
its parents or obtaining theiz con-
sent. Nor does the health-care
provider have to tell the parents.

The original act permitted this
for children aged 16 and up. Now,
a newborn babe enjoys exactly the
same privilege.

But there’s more. Under the old
act the health-care type had to be
either a doctor or a dentist,
period. Now, it can be any ‘‘per-
son licensed, certified or registered
{in B.C. to provide) health care.”

That lets in social workers,
psychologists, chiropractors,
nurses, cosmetic surgeons, and
hairdressers.

Under the amendment’s provi-
sion for a ‘‘course of health
care,”’ elementary and secondary
teachers can also join the
clandestine treatment circus.

Mind-boggling is too mild a
term for the new possibilities.

Your 12-year-old Marjorie
(‘staying overnight at a friend’s’’)
could have an abortion and you'd
never know.

Young Johnny, worried by
lessons about world over-popuia-
tion, could have a vasectomy and
you'd be no wiser.

With teachers and social
workers, many pre-NDP, info
this covert *‘health-care’’ game,
interesting political possibilities
also emerge.

The amended act lets kids
secretly sideline their parents —
nearly 60% of whom voted
against the NDP — because they
don’t trust mom or dad about
ANYTHING.

Ané who are the folks saying
it’s now perfectly OK not to trust
mom or dad about anything, in-
cludirg politics?

Those nice helpful New Demo-
crats of course, whom Marjorie
and Johnny can feara all about
from their teachers and social
workers.

**Give us a child by six,’’ say
the Jesuits, ‘‘and we ave him for

LT.-GOV. David
poised to sign.

pen

HITHER AND YON

—a

life."" Premier Hascourt’s social
engineers are going one better.

The new act hasn't yet been
proclaimed. But once Lt.-Gov.
David Lam signs it, any five-
year-old with two good walking
legs and able to mumble “‘gotta
sez doctor’’ could be theirs for
life, too.

I kid you not. Call Mikey in
Victoria (1-387-1715) and ask
him! :

eee

DATELINES: Early readers of
this column could b+ just in time
to catch the Norman Foote Xuuss
Revue, on at 7 p.m. tonight,
Wednesday, at the Centennial .
Theatre — a family musical show
with part of the procesds going tc
Camp Goodtimes for kids with
cancer, ... Also tonight at 7:30
p.m. Lynn Valley Fell Gospet -
Chpreh, 29th and Lynn Valley
Road, puts on its free “Classics
and Carols’ concert. ... Tomor-
tow, Thursday, Dec. 17, Stings
Silver Harbour Ceutre’s popular
Christmas Lights Tour from: 5:30
to 8:30 p.m. — call 980-2474 for
details. ... And in the eastern
reaches of North Van get your
Christmas tree from the 17th
Seymour District Boy Scouts,
whose tree sale runs daily from 9
a.m. to 10 p.m. until Dec, 23 at
the corner of Mt. Seymour
Parkway and Seymour Boulevard.

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Charm is
making someone else think both
of you are quite wonderful.

MIKE HARCOURT... mom and
dad sidelined. _