Smoking is not a right, it's a privalege.

Hi guys. I had to do a very long post on a pro-choice smoking website today. If you have a couple minutes, please read it, as you deserve to be informed on proceedings which could potentially harm you in the future. Thanks.

CAUTION! Upcoming long rant on: MYCHOICE.CA

Anyone and everyone has noticed that bars, restaurants, public buildings, and even entire cities have become smoke-free over the past 10 years or so. It's obvious that this is a fair decision, as smoking is dangerous to the smoker's health, deters smokers from smoking in excess, and from harming the health of others through second-hand smoke. Well, this all may change if mychoice.ca gets the backing it desires, and it makes me sick.

I first heard a man speaking on 99.9FM yesterday afternoon about mychoice.ca. The advertisers for this campaign, going for a serious ambience, had a monotone man speaking as if non-smokers were horrible people for taking away all these rights for smokers. I'm sorry, but last time I checked, smoking was not a right, it's a privelege, which is only still around because the government needs the tax money.

So I decided to visit mychoice.ca, just to be sure I wasn't overreacting. I'm not. I'm welcomed with little sayings like "choose to be informed" and "choose to speak your mind." Yeah, choose to be informed now that someone tells you to, and choose to speak your mind... aka the mind of the tobacco companies trying to get back the revenues they're losing due to healthy conscious decisions. Idiots.

Then it says: "mychoice.ca is a Web site committed to restoring common sense, balance and civility to the way Canada's adult smokers are treated by their federal, provincial and municipal politicians." COMMON SENSE? If that is common sense, do I look like I want to be "sensible?" How and when did supporting a harmful and very STUPID habit become sensible?

As I delve further into the site as a "visitor", past the very frustrating opening page, I notice it is laid out in a very rational fashion, save the creepy old man who seems far too happy in the upper right-hand corner. The information, however, is very odd, and is working to the ignorant mind, which unfortunately includes a majority of the adult population of Canada. "What is MyChoice.ca?... it is commited to providing you with the means to...receive advance warnings on new proposals for high taxes...learn how Canada's tobacco laws are created and inforced." I'm sorry, but last time I checked, every new proposal needs to be public, and if you were involved in the parliamentary proceedings, you would know when new proposals are being considered. It's not as if some shady guy in a trenchcoat sneaks the propsals in at night in a little folder and snickers to himself. "Ha ha ha, suckers. They'll never know!"

Also, if you really wanted to know about how the laws were created and enforced, you would have looked that up by now, since ALL that information can be found in a library, or online. But, why do we not know? BECAUSE WE DO NOT CARE. THE GENERAL PUBLIC DOES NOT CARE. They are being told what to think by tobacco companies. How do I know this? Besides the fact that they are telling us things we could not, in actuality, care less about, they conclude with:

"And yes, mychoice.ca is financed entirely by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council. A serious website and online association requires funding, and it is natural for industries to support their customers. In the case of smokers, it is not as if there are a lot of other choices available. But this is not an industry or company website. This is an online association for those who choose to smoke. It is about you." -- OH! It's about ME! I FORGOT! I would have thought it was about support for tobacco companies! I would have thought it was about the decreasing revenue for the tobacco industry! But no! It's about me! Well, in that case, I'm all for it!

They even have an 'industry comment', which of course, I had to read, to infuriate myself further. They say:

"There are five million adult smokers in Canada, which should make for a powerful voice by any standard. Yet this group is heavily taxed and regulated by various levels of government without being consulted or heard. Taxation and regulation without representation – is it any wonder why many smokers now feel like second-class citizens?...The average 70% in taxes that goes to governments from tobacco purchases earns smokers no say...Given the taxes Canadian smokers pay, one can certainly argue they deserve access to some of the dollars they pay to their governments."

Of course this group is heavily taxed! They are giving us LUNG CANCER and the taxes are higher today because of inflation, as well as the fact that with less smokers, more taxes are needed to fill that bracket! Most smokers are second-class citizens, aka middle class! Middle- and lower-class citizens smoke far more than upper-class citizens, because they lack the necessary education and information that upper-class citizens utilize, and which is why smokers will listen to this TRIPE at mychoice.ca. Wait, I take that back. They won't listen very well, because not many will log on to the site, because, as I said earlier, NO ONE CARES. And also, why should Canadian smokers have access to "some of the dollars they pay to their governments?" Because they're paying for what they're getting? Because they're stupid and uninformed and killing themselves? Right.

Harming others is not a right, nor a privalege, it's abusing the system. Smoking rooms are still around because whiney smokers don't want to go out in the cold in the winter, and even that is ridiculous. It is one's choice to begin smoking, and to know all the consequences and ramifications that are associated with it. Grow up, or move on.

Sorry for the lengthliness, but this is one of the most unbelievable things I have heard in a long time. Thanks for reading it. I'll have a normal post tomorrow.

--Jam