Ontario Outrage
The battle of ecig regulation has escalated to new heights in Canada.
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by Dave Cross
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Health Canada believes the legislative amendments will provide “balance”, and Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer Society agrees: “We need to modernize legislation. There’s lots of gaps, lots of holes. We have a real opportunity to do things right.”
They ignore evidence to the contrary and hide behind a report produced by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, claiming to find that 10 per cent of Grade 9 students in a single Ontario district stated they had never tried an ecig. They fear some students thinking they’re “fun” and “cool” and yet warn 87,000 Canadians will become smokers this year. Once again it’s quit or die rather than embracing something offering harm reduction.
The Canadian Cancer Society’s (CCS) recent report warns that 8.2 per cent of teens said they had never tried ecigs, and the organisation hopes it provides the impetus required to urge legislators forward. "Nicotine is nicotine," CCS’ Donna Pasiechnik said. “It's not much of a switch to go to tobacco products, right?”
All the evidence in England currently says you’re wrong, Donna. All of it.
At the recent public demonstration, Charlie Pisano of Vapour Advocates of Ontario said: “The government, every year, spends millions on the smoke-free budget to reduce the amount of smokers and, in turn, the amount of smoke-related deaths and disease. Most agree with this spending wholeheartedly, that smokers deserve a lower risk alternative to traditional smoking. However, an unamended Bill 45 passed into law as written will certainly destroy the most significant development to public health that the world has ever seen.”
“Bill 45 effectively ends regulated vaping in Ontario, the entire industry, and it sets a dangerous precedent for other provinces and other nations. So, to this we say: The smoke-free Ontario Act has failed!”
Ben Kin, a vape shop manager, added: “The customer needs to taste and try what they’re going to buy. They have a right to try the device he’s going to buy. If they’re going to buy something without trying them, it will be profitable for the business owners but will be a big loss for the customer. It should be fair for both the customer and the business.”
To amplify the disconnect in thinking, authorities do not intend to place any extra funds into enforcing the new legislation. A poor law, grounded in bias and unscientific research, devoid of funding – it’s a wonder anybody sees this as a good idea.
Photo Credit:
Demo images from the video by Nicole Thompson.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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