The social event that is becoming a social problem

For smokers, one of the hardest parts of giving up smoking is giving up the social aspect of smoking...for those who work for a company that provides a smoking area, not smoking can make an employee feel like they are out of the loop.

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that tobacco is responsible for roughly 30% of all cancer, including 85% of the lung cancer cases. It is also responsible for roughly 47,500 deaths every year in Canada. 18% of our population smokes, but most employers make exceptions for such a minority.

Though the numbers are outdated, CBC figures that we as Canadians lost approximately 8 billion dollars in 1993 alone (approximately 3 billion in Medicare to directly treat this group and 8 million in lost taxes versus 2.7 billion in revenues). Even without adjusting these numbers for an increasing population (which has had a fairly static smoking rate), this would have our entire national debt incurred in 4 years (we are at approximately 29.8 billion dollars). Some would argue that excise taxes on tobacco could even this out, but keep in mind some alarming statistics :
1. Smokers 15-19 has been consistently in the 17-18% range
2. Our government is expecting to lose large amounts of money over the next few years, with questions about whether or not we'll be able to transition from the baby boomers to the next generation.
and 3. The baby boomers are now the ones who are about to need care for their smoking...is the money even there for them?

There has been some hope towards survival, though...the government of British Columbia has successful sued tobacco companies to recover Medicare costs on behalf of the people...and Phillip Morris had a very large defeat in '97 in which they were blamed for the medical problems they caused...

Needless to say, there are a lot of smokers who won't quit until tobacco sales are banned in Canada...maybe we should make it a social event to save our country...