SOURCE Imperial Tobacco Canada
MONTREAL - Tomorrow, on World No Tobacco Day, the federal Health Minister
has an opportunity to explain the disturbing degree of incoherence in
her recent approach to regulating tobacco and marijuana. While the
Minister proposes plain and standardized packaging for tobacco products,
despite cigarette packages already having a 75 per cent health warning
and being hidden from public view at point of sale, she says all that is
required for marijuana is a restriction on packaging or labelling to
ensure product packaging is not appealing to young persons.
"Public explanation is needed as both marijuana and tobacco are substances with known health risks," said Eric Gagnon,
Head of Corporate and External Affairs, Imperial Tobacco Canada. "This
suggests that marijuana and tobacco should face a similar regulatory
framework, but the Minister appears to be headed in the opposite
direction, giving far more leniency to the marijuana industry."
Moreover,
the youth usage rate for marijuana is higher than that for tobacco, and
the Health Minister acknowledges that Canadian youth have the highest
rate of marijuana use in the world at a time when tobacco use and youth
smoking are at an all-time low in the country.
"There
is clear policy incoherence, which is even more apparent considering
the Minister claims the goal with both marijuana and tobacco legislation
is to protect youth," notes Gagnon. "How can two legislative
frameworks, for products that both carry known health risks, have the
same stated goal yet vastly different approaches?"
The
federal government has gone to great lengths to claim its goal is to
eliminate the black market for marijuana and suggests that taxes on
marijuana will be kept low to allow competition with the illegal market.
Yet, governments across Canada
have and continue to tax cigarettes to an extent that it has
contributed to the creation of an illegal market, which now accounts for
more than 20 per cent of the tobacco market in the country.
"If
the Minister truly believes her policy approach to marijuana is
effective, then surely it can be applied to tobacco," said Gagnon.
"Instead, Parliament is about to have the spectacle of the Minister
arguing on one day that branding on tobacco packaging lures youth to
smoking and should be banned, while on the next day suggesting that
branding should be allowed for marijuana to help compete against black
market."
Tomorrow
is an opportunity for the federal Health Minister to demonstrate that
she is serious about the health of Canadians, but focusing on excessive
and ineffective measures that make it easier for illegal traffickers to
counterfeit legal tobacco products is not the way to demonstrate that
commitment. The Health Minister and her department officials should
acknowledge the importance of alternative products – such as heated
tobacco or vaping products – and prioritize the introduction of clear
regulations, making them known and available to adult consumers, as soon
as possible.
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