Cigarettes and People

To CBC Sunday Magazine:

 

Thank you sincerely for the piece you did with Joshua Knelman about Big Tobacco and its cozy relationship with government. I plan to listen to it again to see if I missed anything.

A few points to file away for the next time you run a tobacco story:

The industry had a deep connection to the Liberal Party decades ago.

Tobacco farming was really profitable back in the 1970s. Our housemate Sylvie once worked on a tobacco farm where she had the best wages and working conditions of any of her jobs.

Years and years ago I heard a health economist talking about tobacco. His take was that tobacco-related medical costs were misleading: heavy tobacco users typically died 20 years earlier and lung cancer moved fast and was inevitably fatal. When you look at the medical costs that people total up in that extra 20 years, every tobacco death is a net saving, and a significant one. Not sure what story today's numbers would tell, if you could get them.

Pensions: big savings here for sure. My Uncle Walt died at 63 and never collected a nickel. My friend Lorne died last year at 66, collecting only a year's worth of retirement benefits.

The comparison to other consumer goods was a little strained: convenience stores are full of things that are not good for us. But it would be funny to see bottles of sugary beverage with the label: Warning: long-term use can be a factor in erectile dysfunction related to Type 2 diabetes.

Not funny: tobacco death. My Uncle Walt was a shadow of himself the last time I saw him,  unable to even get in and out of a pickup truck. My dad says that his brother was lying near death on oxygen and hooked up to an IV . Walt said, "That's enough of this bullshit.", disconnected himself and died.

As much as I have a burning and lifelong hatred of tobacco and the criminals who built the industry that killed my uncle, I am not one of those people who stigmatizes smokers.

People who propose this or that legislation often just don't get the neurochemistry and psychology of nicotine and tobacco rituals. Like alcohol or weed, some people find it a necessary anxiety and mood management tool. I've known lots of people who had levels of stress that effectively locked them into their addiction and an early death.

My friend Lorne needed tobacco (and weed) to manage the side effects of his psychiatric medication. But he was on disability with no money to afford either habit so he became an illegal cigarette dealer, selling singles, packs, and cartons to other folks in his situation. They simply couldn't afford the legal and taxed cigarettes that had become an integral part of staying sane and social while being poor, something the smug rhetoric on the topic often disregards. The cigarettes came through Native crime groups that seemed to be both profoundly dangerous and untroubled by the law.

We used to argue about tobacco, but not seriously. There was no point. Then about three years ago his fitness level started to decline, so that eighteen months ago he couldn't walk three blocks without stopping for a rest. I visited him last summer, with me wearing a mask and sitting near an open door. He was glad to see me, but he looked like crap. "Don't worry about Covid, I'm more likely to have lung cancer."  A couple of months later, his difficulties got worse: he was blacking out. We had him booked to go see Doctor Larry, and the next day I called to do my daily phone check-in. No answer, so we called for a police wellness check. I knew the score when two very nice officers showed up at our place asking if I knew next of kin.

And just last month, Lorne's sister shared the autopsy report, which was pretty much as Lorne suspected.

So keep up the good work. But Lorne would want me to remind you not to forget that smokers are people. That was his key to selling cigarettes and I think somehow it is the key to un-selling them.

Best of luck,

Hugh

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