[Intl-tobacco] Canada: Tobacco exec proposes making kid smoking a crime

[Robert Weissman]

Health groups scorn tobacco exec
by Jack Keating / The Province
Source: Vancouver (BC) Province, Wednesday, 12/13/00

Anti-smoking groups are skeptical of a call by the head of Canada's
largest cigarette company to make smoking by teens a crime.

Robert Bexon, president and chief executive officers of Imperial Tobacco
Canada Ltd., says it should be illegal for anyone under 18 to possess or
use tobacco, suggesting offenders should lose their "driving privileges."

But B.C. health ministry spokeswoman Liz Robbin called Bexon's comments
hypocritical since the industry targets young people in their advertising.

 "The industry is trying to deflect criticism away from themselves and on
to the youth," Robbin said yesterday. "We don't want to punish people for
smoking and we feel a comprehensive package of education is a better
approach."

Making teen smokers criminals could backfire, said Diane Gillis of the
B.C.  Lung Association.

"Sometimes there's the attraction of the forbidden fruit, and with youth
there's that temptation of 'what we're not allowed to do we'll try to
do,'" she said. "I would really question [the tobacco industry's] motive."

B.C. already has some of the country's toughest anti-smoking laws, aimed
at retailers who sell to anyone under 19.

"Prosecuting kids for smoking would be incredibly hard to enforce," said
Robbin. "Right now we're making a conscious decision to focus on retailers
who sell to underage teens."

The B.C. government's anti-smoking advertising campaign has had some
impact:  Just 24 per cent of B.C. teens 15 to 19 smoke -- the lowest
proportion in Canada, according to a Statistics Canada survey.

"The fact is tobacco companies make an extraordinary sum of money off kids
getting addicted," said David Sweanor of the Non-Smokers Rights
Association.