Feds make changes to tobacco strategy
Posted September 28, 2010 6:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The graphic, grody pictures on cigarette packages won’t be getting any worse. The federal government has decided to focus on the issue of contraband smokes.
Some provinces are a bit shocked by Health Canada‘s decision. Instead of investing more money into forcing the tobacco companies to make the pictures more gruesome, efforts will be made to stop the spread of contraband cigarettes.
B.C.’s Minister of Healthy Living and Sport, Ida Chong tells the Globe and Mail she was a bit disappointed by the decision. She says she was looking forward to seeing a national quit line, which would have been included on the new packaging.
Fewer Canadians are lighting up, while more and more are butting out for good. According to the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, released by Statistics Canada, just 18 per cent of people 15 and older started smoking last year. That number is down 25 per cent from 11 years ago.
