This week, the government of P.E.I. released a wellness consultation paper that includes a proposal to ban cigarette sales to persons born after a certain date.
If implemented, P.E.I. will become the first jurisdiction in the country — and one of the first in the world — to prohibit the sale of cigarettes, which remain the leading preventable cause of death in Canada.
P.E.I.’s proposal is striking because it occurs against a backdrop of sweeping deregulation of other addictive substances and activities. This trend toward decriminalization is, we’d argue, generally the right one. But only if it is part of a comprehensive strategy to educate the public and mitigate risks.
Consider a timeline of recent events:
In 2018, the Trudeau government decriminalized cannabis, making good on a signature component of the party’s first election platform.
In 2021, Parliament amended the Criminal Code to remove a longstanding prohibition on single-event sports betting, recognizing that a flourishing grey market already existed online. This change enabled the provinces to implement their own gambling regimes, which all have since done.
In 2023, B.C. decriminalized the possession of hard drugs as part of a three-year pilot project. (That project was largely suspended last week, when Ottawa granted B.C.’s request to re-criminalize hard drug use in most public spaces.)
The move toward decriminalization in each of these cases has been animated by the thesis that bans don’t work, and can even be counterproductive. While we agree with this thesis, we’d argue that the decriminalization process has, in each case, been flawed.Â
Take cannabis decriminalization. Five years after legalization, governments are still not studying the effects of cannabis emissions or toxicity on health, an August 2023 Globe and Mail article noted. Yet, early research suggests cannabis may pose even greater risks of developing severe illnesses than tobacco.Â
Canada has also failed to adequately promote awareness of the mental health risks associated with excessive cannabis use, despite data showing cannabis is widely used by young people and its risks not well understood.Â
The explosion of sports gambling ads that have followed gambling deregulation suggests similar inattention to the risks. Deregulation has turned sports watching into a casino experience, damaging the integrity of sport and fostering addiction, Bruce Kidd, a professor emeritus in sport and public policy at the University of Toronto, told Canadian Affairs in November. Kidd is now one of the members of a steering committee sponsoring a bill to ban gambling ads entirely.Â
And B.C.’s pilot project is in shambles 15 months after its launch. Advocates of the project have long said decriminalization needs to be accompanied by substantial investments in addiction treatment and mental health support to have any chance of success. But B.C. went ahead with decriminalization despite severe shortages in such supports.
For deregulation to be effective, then, it must be part of a robust strategy — one that includes rigorous research into the risks of the product and its deregulation; substantial investments in public education and other social programs; and targeted measures to limit vulnerable or impressionable groups’ access and use.
Interestingly, though, in the case of tobacco, these strategic elements have actually been present for decades. Strict rules govern tobacco marketing, labelling and sales. And since 2018, the government has spent $66 million a year on Canada’s Tobacco Strategy, which promotes awareness of the risks of smoking and supports Canadians who want to quit.
In this context, a move toward criminalization seems counterproductive. One would expect Islanders to be especially skeptical of the effectiveness of a ban. P.E.I. had a flourishing black market for alcohol before ending prohibition in 1948, with an estimated 25 illegal pubs operating in a city of 16,000.Â
If P.E.I. wants to do more to deter smoking among young people, there are additional steps short of prohibition it could take. It could raise the legal minimum age for purchasing cigarettes. It could require cigarettes to be sold by government operators to reduce the profit incentive to promote sales. It could mandate lower nicotine levels.Â
Reducing tobacco consumption is a laudable and important goal. But decriminalization is trendy for a reason. Governments should not resort to ineffective tools when they have other tools in their toolbox.
“A bill to ban gambling ads entirely”? Why not, since cigarettes, hard liquor,and cannabis advertising are already banned. Gambling is just another harmful behaviour with way more losers than winners.
I don’t think that decriminalizing cannabis was done haphazardly. The fact is a significant proportion of the population was already using, and there was no strong evidence for any bad effects. Five years later, what are the downsides? Has there been an increase in motor vehicle accidents? Smart phones seem more of a problem than cannabis in high schools. Decriminalization of sports gambling – not such a good idea, for the reasons mentioned in the article. But decriminalization of hard drugs – that has been a huge headache because of the total lack of boundaries on the part of the addicts. Nobody is dying from cannabis use, but people continue to die from fentanyl overdoses, and yet there is no shortage of new recruits. We need to pay a lot more attention to this problem because this is a case of people profiting off the lives of the marginal and downtrodden.
The Globe just published an article today noting that cannabis legalization has been associated with high levels of pot poisoning among seniors: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadas-legalization-of-cannabis-associated-with-higher-rates-of-er/
And Canadian Affairs published an editorial in November which noted that 10,000 young Canadians were hospitalized from cannabis use in 2023 (see: https://www.canadianaffairs.news/2023/12/01/government-must-educate-canadians-on-cannabis-risks/ ). The editorial also points to government survey data showing a majority of Canadians are ignorant of the risks of cannabis. So I would say the lack of understanding of the risks points to a poor decriminalization strategy.
Good point! You, of course, are talking about cannabis edibles, which were a totally new product at the time of legalization. Before that time, edibles were home-made, so it’s no wonder nobody knew those risks. But, smoking cannabis flower? Nothing much has changed there.
I would like to ban internet access on portable electronic devices (smartphones) for CHILDREN. They do not need access to social media and generative AI —24/7/365. The use of these platforms are doing a lot of damage to children—-a lot. If us adults do not do something, we will continue to raise generations of anxious, depressed, and suicidal children who will not know what is true and what is not because they will believe everything that generative AI spits out at them—-as they are entering adulthood.