cigarettes – The Concordian

We know it isn’t good for us, but do we care? Does smoking cigarettes still make someone cool?

A few weeks ago, I brought home a puppy. She’s cute as can be, sassy as can be, and, unfortunately for me, a canine vacuum. She will eat anything: leaves, rocks, you name it. The morning after my birthday party she threw up a piece of a balloon that I’m not even sure how she got a hold of. She was feeling celebratory I guess. But her favourite snack of all — the one she can’t seem to get enough of — is cigarette butts.

Having lived in Montreal for three years, I’m well aware that this is not the cleanest city in the world. I am even more acutely aware that, perhaps due to the city’s European influence, a great deal of its residents are cigarette smokers. I had just never realized quite how many cigarette butts are littered on our streets and sidewalks.

It’s left me wondering — my own dismay towards cigarette butts aside — is smoking cigarettes still cool?

The practice of tobacco smoking was, among other things, appropriated from Indigenous people by sailors returning to Europe from the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, according to Britannica. Over time, smoking began to be used less and less for medicinal and spiritual purposes, as it was originally intended, and more so as a symbol of wealth and elitism in western society.

While smoking did eventually become more affordable, the coolness factor brought about by the years it spent as something only rich people could do, took a good, long while to start wearing off.

It wasn’t until around the 1950s that research started suggesting a link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer; since then, its popularity has slowly but surely declined. According to the University of Waterloo, nearly half of all Canadians were smokers in 1965, compared to about 15 per cent of Canadians in 2017. Despite that decrease, tobacco continues to be the number one cause of preventable disease and death in Canada, according to BREATHE, the Canadian lung association.

So, Concordians — smokers and non-smokers alike — how do we feel about cigarettes today? Is smoking still cool?

What’s the Consensus?

Click here to cast your vote:

https://the-city-concordia-u.involve.me/new-project-09ac-copy-copy

The results from each poll will be published in the following edition of this column.

Last time, we asked readers if they think that Concordia should have made vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for returning to classes in person. The results: 46.7% said yes and 53.3% said no.

Feature graphic by James Fay

The provincial government is compelling Quebec residents to pay up on their bad habits through an increase of taxes on alcohol and cigarettes proposed in the new budget.

The Parti Québécois expects to generate $536 million over three years to help clear up the province’s debt. The budget proposed an 18 per cent increase on tobacco products and raise in 25 per cent on alcohol.

The goal of the tax being to rake in more money on items that are not considered essential but that people consume on a regular basis; its revenue will be key in reducing Quebec’s debt which Premier Pauline Marois hopes to erase within the end of the next fiscal year.

Although the tax was only announced last Tuesday, it will be applied retroactively. Restaurants and bars are expected to tally and pay the difference between what they have already paid in taxes on unopened alcohol and what the new increase would cost.

According to Paul Quinn, the owner of Montreal bar Irish Embassy, the tariffs are hitting at a tough time. Quinn emphasized that having to go through the inventory when bars are preparing for the holiday rush seems counterproductive.

“What harms us the most is that the tax is retroactive. It takes time before we can change the menus and all the prices so in the end, we’re losing money,” said Quinn. “They’re actually harming themselves in the long run. With the hockey lockout, there isn’t a lot of tourism and higher prices aren’t going to bring more people.”

Conversely, Tommy Nguyen, the manager at local bar La Station des Sports, isn’t worried.

“People will never be discouraged from buying alcohol or cigarettes,” said Nguyen.

Restaurants boasting wine cellars will lose the most due to the number of unopened bottles. The amount they will have to pay is significantly higher than bars where alcohol sells quickly and there is no storage of wines or spirits.

According to Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau, the last time Quebec saw a tax increase on alcohol was 15 years ago and on cigarettes, nine years ago in 2003.

For restaurants, beer will cost 82 cents per litre instead of 65 cents and will increase by $1.35 for other alcoholic beverages. For the folks at home, the tax on beer is up to 50 cents from 40 cents. The tax will add $1.12 per litre to the purchase of other alcoholic beverages, up from 89 cents per litre. As for cigarettes, the taxes are now worth 12.9 cents per cigarette from 10.9 cents.