[Thunderball]

Maybe I'm just really jaded, but I honestly don't see many of those measures being very effective.

Lets be real honest, even to otherwise intelligent people, you can shove a dozen people like Barb Tarbox in front of them, or inundate people with pictures of diseased lungs, cancerous tongues, blackened teeth and gums, flaccid cigarettes as a substitute for a limp penis, and all other proven side effects ad nauseum. And yet, they won't quit. They'll either say they don't smoke "that much", or think menthols are somehow better because menthol leaves are healthy, or pontificate about Uncle Al who lived to 90 and smoked a pack a day, or bring up the evils of alcohol somehow being in the same league, or say fast food is somehow worse too. Or, they say its their life, their choice. Which would be true, if not for public healthcare footing the bill.

Yet, even with all the campaigns and startling imagery, kids that should be scared straight aren't, they still do it.

Hammering people who sell cigarettes to minors sounds great, but don't we already do that? And won't that simply lead minors to the black market? Especially in concert with a tax jump.
Raising taxes sounds great, but didn't we recently drop the taxes to curb black market sales?
Banning flavoured tobacco sounds about as useful as banning bum wine... something else will take its place. The addiction is to nicotine, not to the masking flavoring.

All these measures seem to be ignoring the elephant in the room. Personal accountability. If people don't feel they have any real consequences, give them some.

Maybe we should try a couple of these suggestions:

- Raising charges and fines against youth (and maybe their parents too) for smoking under age. I bet a 16 year old kid will think twice if they get a massive $500-1000 fine for smoking. If they don't? Well, money to spend mitigating bad choices.

- Implement a mandatory information collection on all tobacco purchases and track how much each person purchases tobacco annually. Charge them an extra health premium every year on their provincial tax. You wanna smoke so badly, fine. Your decision will cost even more now.

Suing tobacco companies seems like an easy way out, but its revenue to deal with the negative outcomes, so if the courts say they're culpable, as they have, why not. At least that one will work in its goal to put money in the bank to fund healthcare and preventing. To stop tobacco use by minors, nope.

There really isn't a simple solution, but it seems the focus is on prevention, and I'm not confident that actually works after a certain point. I mean, as a society, we have to try something, but people love their vices, and often curbing those are impossible (see: War on Drugs) or ridiculous (see: Prohibition).