Who is going to inforce it...Will it will be like Bike helments,...NEVER INFORCED...

Yeah, great call, and let the druggies shoot up and the pushers sell drugs right on the streets in the open. Raid the crack houses and don't charge anyone. Tell the B & E artists to control that bad habit they have of stealing. Cops should grab up stolen items and sell them back to the public. Makes for a good auction. Or allow more pawn shops to open so another business, hopefully profitable, can be established. Take all the money seized and give it to lawyers to defend the creeps they seized it from. Leave the prostitutes on the streets and send the Johns picked up to John school to educate them of the
harm they do by paying for sex. Who pays for this John school, and who are the professional teachers? Ex prostitutes? Let the smokers get paid for "stress" leave as the breaking of the habit is traumatic!
Does any of this make sense?
Smoking dope or crack seems to be acceptable, but puffing up a little nicotine is now a cardinal sin?
Breathe in that good old polluted air in Prince George and cringe at that whiff of cigarette smoke you imagined you detected.
Wow, how do we get our priorities so mixed up?
I do not smoke, but I do not tell anyone they cannot have a cigarette in my home or car. I am safer there than outside.
Looks like there are more idiots in charge than common sense folks!
Matter of fact-looks like there are more and more idiots-period.

Goodness knows what any of the above comments have to do with tobacco addiction, but one thing trusted missed is that tobacco smoking causes lung cancer, and lung cancer kills hundreds and hundreds of Canadians each and every year. The other problems he (?) mentioned don't do that. Treating lung cancer costs a lot of money, so the less lung cancer, the less money required by the health care system to treat people who have it.

Experience has proven that banning smoking and jacking up the cost of tobacco to extortionate levels stops people smoking. The taxes raised can go a long way towards covering the costs of treating the cancers that tobacco causes.

More importantly, some young people today won't start smoking so won't die from it, and some smokers will stop and save their lives.

You forget they aren't illegal..and jacking up the cost stops people from smoking! give me a break, (by the way when I stopped they were $3 bucks a pack) and if one day they are made illegal the pulp mills will "still" be pumping out there crap.I know they are not good for you.. but you can get away from cigarette smoke, but you can't get away from that smell.

I did not forget cigarettes are not illegal, however it is an irrelevant fact. Why? Because cigarettes cause cancer and kill you whether they are legal or not. Cancer kills regardless of the law. Anything that stops people from smoking stops cancer from killing them, and that is a good thing.

Pulp mill pollution should be controlled, yes, but whether it is or not doesn't alter the fact that smoking cigarettes kills people.

Yes ammonra, and just inform us what drugs do?
They destroy the user, and the family and friends are helpless to stop the rapid progression as the addict requires more and more to achieve their sought after high!
They stop being productive members of society.
They will lie, cheat, and steal to support their habit. They will steal from family, friends and strangers, and there is no stopping them.
Yes, cigarette smoking is an addictive habit, but the use that is increasing with drugs will have a far reaching horrifying effect on all of society. It will create far more havoc than cigarette smokers ever could.
Cigarette smokers are employable. Are most drug users?
If you want to see real smokers-travel to some countries in Europe. And their cigarettes are power houses!
Take a good hard look at the alcoholics, who destroy their own and their families lives with abuse and neglect. Lots of health problems there also?
If you do not think this is not a major problem already, you are surely living in a "la la" land and when you awake to the realization the hazards in having a drug addicted society you just might take off those rose colored glasses.
I do not approve of smoking,or excessive drinking, and realize there is a cost factor attached pertaining to health costs.
I am certain you will be inclined to hang onto your pocketbook unless something is done to stop the free useage of drugs in our society.
This may be just the tip of the iceberg, but when families, and society in general are destroyed by drug addicts, then you may see the writing on the wall.
Breathe deep, and tell me the pollution in Prince George contributes to your health.
How many years now-40 plus? And it affects EVERY resident.
Hope you get well soon.

No doubt about it,smoking kills.(strangely enough,it does not kill EVERYONE who smokes)We have established that fact many times over.But what bothers me as was just mentioned by "trusted", at least cigarette smokers are employable.They work and they pay taxes.And no,most smokers do not break into your home and steal all your stuff to buy more dope.They don't break into your car for a loonie in the ashtray either.
On the other hand,most drug users are NOT employable (at least not consistantly)and a very large percentage of dopers ARE criminals.The medical system and our social services spends many,many, millions trying to sort out and help these winners.To no avail.And I am betting that most of them do not pay their B.C. Medical premiums either,like most productive smokers do.
If our government, in their great wisdom, can constantly beat the hell out of productive smokers and treat them like social lepers,how come they can't seem to deal with the crime related to druggies and the dope trade? They enjoy the profit reaped from tobacco taxes but continue to allow smokes to be sold.They also allow the tobacco companies to put in all the additives and poisons that they do.Cigarettes are now more addictive than ever and that is a fact that the government is fully aware of.( did you know that not that many years ago,tobacco was actually completely organic? )To me, that makes them great big bloody hippocrites and they need to give their collective political heads a shake!!As usual,our leaders have their priorities screwed up.
And by the way,smoking killed my Grandfather...he was 93 and never sick a day in his life.I don't smoke anymore and my health is lousy.Has been for years.I did however spend most of my working life in pulp mills.17 years of it in Prince George.

And another short note here... my father who was a very proud war veteran, use to get furious everytime he drove by the local old folks home and saw all the old boy's standing outside in the rain having a smoke....
"even the damn Nazi's used to let them smoke in the prisoner of war and concentration camps...and we treat them like that!"
Maybe sometimes perhaps, a good thing can be carried just a bit too far....

Of course some recreational drugs have negative effects on society, break up families, cause people to lose their jobs. Of course they should be regulated and action taken to lessen the impact. It must be said, however, that jailing people usually accomplishes nothing. Recovery programs do help, however, and that takes lots of money - just like anti-smoking programs.

Talking about cocaine or heroin or marijuana addictions, when the government takes action about tobacco is called a "distractor". That is, it appears to have something to do with it but is actually totally irrelevant and only serves to distract attention away from the main, central point - tobacco kills people.

The reason for banning tobacco smoking is to make it difficult for new users (and perhaps some old users) to contineue. This is important because for over 50 years it has been known that the natural products that form in tobacco plants are strong carcer causing agents and people die from inhaling them, or from soaking their lips, mouth and throat in them. It is the natural materials that cause cancer, not the additives, although I suspect those do not improve the safety at all.

Remember this too, productive employees who smoke will still be productive when they stop smoking. In fact, their productivity may increase as they won't have to leave the workplace and go outside every hour at their employer's expense and waste ten minutes (an hour and a half a day in total, seven and a half hours a week, or one day in five). Also remember, their non-smoking co-workers won't have to work harder to cover for their skiving off for a ciggi every hour!

Let me point out that not taking action on cigarette smoking and letting anyone smoke anywhere will NOT lessen alcohol abuse, cocaine use, heroin addiction, break ins, the number of murders, pulp mill pollution, backyard burning, littering nor any other negative feature in modern society. It WILL however stop some current young people from dying in 30 years time in agony because their lungs have rotted away from cancer or emphysema and they can't breathe. I think that is more important.

"No doubt about it,smoking kills.(strangely enough,it does not kill EVERYONE who smokes)."

This might prove that a more hardy group of people will survive in the end through natural selection, as they always have ....

I mean, look at us .... if we did not have the survivor knowledge DNA, we would not be here today.

Well, some have the super body biological survivor DNA and their offsprings will one day inherit the earth where 80% have died off due to a malfunction of the knowledge laden DNA, and they can start over again and make sure they do not overpopulate the globe in the following 2,000 years.

;-)

Well BC Government you do a good job of puffing up your chest, patting yourself on the back, you talk a good battle now lets see you gets some backbone and do something with it.
I hope it happens but I am not going to hold my breath, except entering and exiting buildings, waiting for it to really happen...
Is there a phone number for the smoke police?

I think this is a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Banning the display of lighters? Yeah that will have an impact. The govt wants to be seen to be doing something and we seem to be willing to go along with it based on whether we are smokers or not. For the record, i am against smoking in public places, period. However, I think that we are now straying into the absurd. There is NO evidence that people smoking near a door are giving other people cancer. To suggest otherwise will require some scientific evidence. If we are trying to ban smoking then make it illegal. Rediculous you say? I agree, but at least it would be taking the high road rather than just marginalizing people who are not breaking the law, and thus have the RIGHT to smoke. Yes, it is a right, just like riding a skiddoo (extremely dangerous if you look at the stats) or a motorcycle or who do anything else that other people might consider risky and unnescessary.
Whay do we think it is the govts. job to stop kids from smoking? Why do we think they can? I was driving down the road the other day when i was passed by a car with two teens in it, talking on cell phones and smoking cigs. Dont tell me their parents cant tell they smoke. It is illegal too! We dont need to ban selling lighters and matches at convenience stores. We dont need to make smokers freeze themsilves to death 100 yards away from the building. If we want to cut down smoking we need to keep our kids from starting in the first place. Yes, i said OUR kids. I mean parents. We all, as aprents need to take the responsibility and stop passing the buck to the govt.
FOr those of you who do not have kids please remember that every time you support new laws and bylaws regulating our lives you are supporting a reduction in our freedom and our human rights. If we allow these little erosions to continue then pretty soon it will not just be the smokers who are suffering.

PS my apollogies for the ranting nature of the letter and the typos but i am in quite a hurry. It is calving season!

PS my apollogies for the ranting nature of the letter and the typos but i am in quite a hurry. It is calving season!

Yes,it IS illegal for under age kids to buy smokes.So where do they get them? Like bike helmets and under age drinking,I can't help but wonder if in fact they did start to enforce the law,what would happen.It might be very interesting.In my day if you were under age and got caught with booze,you got charged.And fined.Then your old man kicked your ass!!!Now,it is overlooked just like under age smokers.No penalties,no fear or respect for the law I guess.And it will be the same with these new laws regarding smoking.Who will enforce them?

Ammonra, kindly give us a description of what you consider "recreational" drugs?
Should be interesting!

I couldn't agree more Caranmacil, it's one more step towards the Nanny State.

The expression "recreational drug" is a colloquial expression (not mine personally) referring to drugs used by people for fun. Usually, but not always, it excludes alcohol and tobacco. I was using it in its generally accepted definition.

Personally, I don't think that any drugs should be used for recreation except, perhaps, for an occasional pint of English bitter.

I am, incidentally, an ex-smoker (25-30 cigarettes daily, some pipe and small cigars). I gave up 10 years ago when I was coughing for an hour every morning. I became addicted when I was 13, as was common in the part of London I lived.