Alcohol and tobacco are the bane of the healthcare system. Alcoholism takes its toll on the drinker's health, throws tens of thousands onto the welfare rolls, kills thousands every year on the highways, in other accidents and by suicide and destroys family life in a multitude of grotesque ways. It reaches into the womb and destroys babies before they're born (See "Peptides protect against fetal alcohol syndrome" for more.) The bill for much of the damage goes to the government in increased healthcare costs, higher disability payouts and heavier demands on social workers and support facilities.

This year, tobacco will kill about 50,000 Canadians and, again, governments will pick up the tab for the treatment costs. This irks them and for the past decade they've been trying to do something about the tobacco side of the equation. Here and in the US, NGOs and private citizens instituted a barrage of lawsuits designed to make the tobacco producers pay for some of the damage their products cause. The landmark ruling last week by the BC Supreme Court (see "Provinces set to sue cigarette makers over healthcare costs,"), which will permit the provinces to sue the companies, is expected to open the settlement floodgates. Provincial governments can't wait to get their hands on the big bucks. What hypocrites! Lawyers are fond of cautioning their clients that they "can't suck and blow at the same time." Unless you're government that is. They tax tobacco sales to the hilt and have shown time and time again they'll do anything to fight these scourges — as long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line. And watch what happens to the money these suits bring in. Will it go into reducing smokers' dependence on the weed? Hardly. Most will disappear into general revenues to be used as they see fit. That's precisely what's happened to most of the big settlements in the US.

It's a free country and we have the right to kill ourselves any way we like. But you have to draw the line somewhere and tobacco is a great place to start. Much could be done to restrict access to sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products. A start might be to sell them only through government stores the way alcohol is sold in most provinces — and then only by the carton. As usual the government could have its cake and eat it too by jacking up the price to, say, $15 a pack — it's already close to $10 in many provinces — and just think: government could benefit not only from the increased taxes, they'd get the shopkeeper's share of the take as well. Most smokers really do want to give up the habit and would thank our rulers for it.
— David Elkins, Executive Editor