?I'm just old enough to remember when people came in twos. There were two types of people; the cool, suave and sophisticated smoker, and the pale, bland and totally unattractive non-smoker. Back then tobacco companies ruled the world, and your entire life was diced up into whether or not you lit-up. Restaurants, cinemas, office space and even planes were divided into sections. In 1973 the first non-smoking sections were introduced on airlines, and the trend never stopped. My first glimpse of the anti-tobacco machine came as a teenager watching a debate on CNN. The battle cry back then was to ban smoking on domestic flights within the US. It would also be the first and last time I would see someone really trying to defend the rights of smokers.
"Where will the banning of tobacco products end," he asked. Much to the amusement of the host and several of the anti-tobacco lobbyists, a lone voice asked if this would lead us to one day banning smoking in bars, restaurants and night clubs. "That's absurd," said the lobbyist, "we are not about trying to turn smokers into outcasts." Of course, after winning the debate on domestic travel, the same war machine would soon turn to ban smoking on all flights. Today, we are at the "absurd" point of banning smoking in bars and the like.
Tobacco Complex
I laughed when I heard Attorney General John Jeremie talking about the powerful "tobacco complex," working behind the scenes to stop the legislations they proposed. You see, every time I walk to the corner store to buy a pack of smokes I pay close to 60 per cent of the purchase price in taxes to the Government... for nothing. There is no health plan for smokers in T&T. So what I am paying this tax for? A hospital bed, (if I can get one) and some pain killers? And where is the all powerful "tobacco complex" to my aid? The local powerhouse of smoking, West Indian Tobacco Company (Witco), has done nothing more than make off-the-collar statements on this issue.
Acting almost like the back-alley drug pusher, they seem to be embarrassed to stand up and claim us as their own. Where is my great defender, my "tobacco complex"? One can only think that Witco foresees that with the Government action, they only stand to benefit. By anti-tobacco hammering away at smokers they also slowly took away any corporate citizenry from the companies. Up to the late 1990s, Witco was one of the top sponsors of community-based, entertainment and sporting events. Then one day, what seemed like them responsibly moving out of the limelight, turned out to be, Witco holding on to more profits.
In T&T, self imposed regulations have been in place for many years, done more out of common courtesy than out of need. Almost all enclosed restaurants are non-smoking, all movie houses and theatres, as well as most night clubs. No one smokes in a taxi or maxi, or in offices. So it begs the question, who is the legislation for? Is this like many other "big ticket" laws in T&T that will just be written to use up some of the ink and paper in the Red House? Yet another unenforceable law that we can jokingly tell tourists: "That is against the law here too, but this is Trinidad."
Do you remember the big hoorah that was made when the seat belt act was put into play? Today, most people still see it as an option. In Canada where bars are enclosed because of winter, smoking is prohibited, but outdoor decks and side walk seating areas were built so that smokers can have their section. In T&T the average "hawk and spit" rum shop is open-air, with doors and windows open wide. Is that an enclosed area? Where are the lines drawn to fit the legislation into our own cultural identity, and where is the "tobacco complex"?
Who benefits?
It is my view that the tobacco company knows that even with the Government puritan agenda against gambling, alcohol, sugar and smokers, it will, in fact, change nothing. Prohibition did not work, as will all agendas to force people into a lifestyle change. People who smoke do so because they want to.
I am fully aware of the vocal backlash I, as a smoker, will get from my non-smoking Trinbagonians. However, I feel I must pick up the smoking gun and go on record, because my "pusher" seems to be hiding in the dark. The disdain of smokers seems to now live in Mt D'Or. It is just inconceivable to me, whose crime it is to buy your product, that was still legal up to press time, that I can be treated like a bastard child that not even the father/pusher seems to be willing to take care of.