4 — Sunday. June 16, 1991 ~- North Shore News Smokers are being pushed to the brink 1 DOUBT that smokers can be pushed much further. Bob Hunter STRICTLY PERSONAL Since the last tax hike on smokes, I have noticed a new phenomenon in pubs: a guy going from table to table, usually with a briefcase, peddling contraband smokes. . I don’t know what the goin; price is for hot nicotine, but the fact that it is becoming part of the underground drug economy tells me plenty about the effects of the anti-smoking crusade. If the price is pushed high enough, we will sooner or later have a de facto Prohibition Era on our hands, with all the crimi- nal activity that it inevitably en- tails. The total value of the under-- ground drug economy is estimated at $41 billion a year in the U.S., which suggests it would be at least $4 billion in Canada. As nicotine is increasingly pushed over the edge into virtually illegal (or unaffordable) status, one sure outcome will be the ex- pansion of that underground economy, with all the attendant loss of tax money to shoulder the burden of limousines for Ottawa. You can only clobber people so often before they turn on you. And that’s what’s happening with smokers. I see a new, ragged pride among smokers. They are outsiders now. SS NZ >. Mercedes-Be BMW Porsche Toyota Acura Honda The desirable trades are found at: Mercedes-Benz North hore See this issue of Automotive Classifieds 1375 Marine Dr. North Van 984-9351 E Richmond 273-3266 Board rooms and back rooms alike are mostly smoke-free. The smoker has been driven into the streets. Here, he discovers what the outlaws have always known: If the law is against you, your only buddies are others on the run. Accordingly, smokers bond now in a way they never did before. It is nearly impossible to find a middlz ground on the smoking issue. A person like me who is of f cigarettes for eight or nine months at a time before a crisis strikes and I fall back, becomes a social pariah, first as a smoker, then as a non-smoker, when I finally get around to quitting again. Your smoking buddies view you as a traitor when you quit. Your non-smoking buddies view you as worse than the lowest scoundrel when you start up again. ‘‘Went over to the other side, ch? Couldn't hack it, eh?’ The subject is so touchy that, once word gets out that you have switched sides, some people will simply not talk to you, sc angry have they become over your ‘‘be- trayal.’’ The most irritating aspect of the whole issue, to me, is the way the anti-smoking lobby has pitched itself as some form of en- vironsmentzlism. The impact smoking has on the planetary biosphere is absolutely minimal except in the positive sense (from a Deep Ecology perspective) of shortening the life span of a portion of the human race. Yet a little while ago, while in one of my breakdowns from the rarified atmosphere of non-smok- ing sainthood, a woman who has never smoked accosted me for contributing to pollution. This was a woman who had just finished driving to work by herself. Now, when it came to not being part of a car pool, I was every bit as guilty as her. But the fact was that I had converted my car to a natural gas system, so | could reply: ‘‘Lady, I may be smoking but my car isn’t, and you may not be smoking, but your car sure as hell is. Get off my back, I’m purer than you.”’ The amount of carbon dioxide generated by the burning of a 24 single tank of gasoline requires the concentrated effort of a fully mature tree for at least a year for it to be removed from the at- mosphere. While it seems to be firmly es- tablished that secondary smoke can affect other people, there is no evidence fo suggest that it docs any damage to the ozone layer, whales, penguins or the rainforest. In other words, the damage is strictly limited, and should not therefore be considered an *‘en- vironmental"* problem. When f am in my smoking phase, § find it impossible not to agree with my fellow smokers that the entire anti-smoking campaign is a violation of civil rights. On top of that, while tobacco companies are permitted to turn us into junkies, once we try to free ourselves, we are treated as though what we are undertaking is a minor matter, and certainly not worthy of us being given time off work and expensive rehabilitation, like other dopers or alcoholics. And when I am not smoking, | think people who decide to smoke should have to sign a document waiving their rignt to free medical treatment in the event of a tobac- co-related illness. That would ease the burden on others who have to pay for the national medical scheme. I we are independent enough to defy the majority by smoking, we should te independent enough to pay for our own messy death, | say. . One more thing: the penalty for selling smokes to minors should be death by garroting. SEARS Correction The Mate’s Bed advertised on page 37 in last Wednes- day's North Shore News should have read Reg. $544.43, Sale $272.21 We apologize for any in- convenience that this may have caused. This summer, discover the star student in your child. This summer, in just two hours a week, Sylvan Learning Centre, will bring out the confident, successful student within your son or daughter. it’s fun and challenging. Ask about our guaantee. Diagnostic Testing ¢ Individualised Instruction © Personal Attention * State-of-the-Art System Now enrolling for Reading « Math © Study Skills © Algebra ¢ Sylvan CLEAR Writing.™ Coquitlam 941-9166 Materials * Unique Reward Sylvan Learning wommz Centre® Helping Kids do better.” North Vancouver 985-6811 MOTOR VEHICLE INJURY CLAIMS DEREK A. 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