So the Canadian budget came out today and the government stuck a knife in the backs of smokers. They are raising the taxes on a carton of cigarettes by four dollars, which will bring in an extra $3.3 billion in revenue.When I heard this I was enraged and I pledge today that my vote will never again go for the Conservative party.... ever! They just lost my vote FOR LIFE.
Let me explain why:
First let me say that I no longer smoke! That's right, smoke free now for two months. As those who read my blog know, I switched over to e-cigarettes and I now "vape". It took about three months for me to completely drop the cigarettes, but since December I've completely quit (more on this at the end of this blog post).
So the cigarette tax doesn't affect me, yet I'm still enraged for the following reasons:
- Deterence: Increased prices have always been used to deter youth from smoking. I'm fine with that. But at $10 per pack, the price is already a deterrent. What 16-year-old can afford a 10- dollar-a-day habit? So this increase has nothing to do with deterring kids from smoking.
- Tax on the poor: We all know that the lower socio-economic class has far more smokers than say the middle class or the rich. Taxing cigarettes further essentially amounts to nothing more than a tax on the poor. The ONLY reason we put up with it is because of years of conditioning in which we are told "smokers are bad".
- Attacking the minority: Let's get real, it's only because the general population believes that "smokers are bad" that increasing taxes on cigarettes at this point is applauded. Don't give me healthcare costs (existing taxes more than cover that). If it were about 'health' then how come taxes never go up on McDonald's hamburgers or other junk food? The simple truth is attacking smokers has become acceptable - and by attacking I mean taking their money away from them in the form of taxes.
- Addiction means No Choice: Raising taxes on people who are addicted to a drug seems morally wrong. If we are going to call smoking an addiction, by the very definition of addiction, it is something that people cannot stop doing. It is only because we hear stories of people who 'quit smoking' that we think that it can't be that hard. Well, let me tell you, I tried everything to quit and the only thing that worked was the e-cigarette (which ironically Health Canada would love to make illegal to buy in Canada... wrap your head around that!).
Smokers make for easy targets for increased taxes because they will sacrifice other areas of their life to support their addiction. The government knows this and is taking advantage of it. A pack of cigarettes are already taxed extremely high (70 per cent of the cost of a pack is already taxes), adding further tax is nothing more than stealing from addicts who have no choice but to pay up (it's really no different than the drug dealer who sells cheap until someone is addicted then jacks up the price). - The police win again: The police you say? What do they have to do with this? Well, by increasing taxes they predict contraband activity will go up, so to deal with that the RCMP will be getting $92-million to deal with contraband activity. Hey, I like the police, but come on... so when the poor can't afford their cigarettes and have to buy them via contraband we'll use the police to try and shut that down. Makes no sense. Are you seeing a bit of a methodology going on here? Tax the poor then use the police to ensure they comply. There's something unsettling about that to me.
So there you have it. Canada needs to balance its budget so they go after addicts who have no choice but to pay up.
If this were a tax on junk food or caffeine people would be furious. It is only because it's a tax on smokers that most people will not care in the least. In fact, I suspect many will applaud.
Vape On
All I can say to smokers is start vaping! Although I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the government goes after vapers also.
Vaping is a fraction of the cost of cigarette smoking and you aren't inhaling 5,000 chemicals and carcinogens. I probably spend maybe the equivalent of 50 bucks a month on vaping (whereas I use to spend $225 a month on smoking).
While Health Canada discourages people from using an e-cigarette (surprise surprise, don't use the ONE thing that works to quit smoking), I can tell you first hand that for me, they've been a god send. Aside from all the benefits of quitting smoking (fresh lungs, increased energy, cleaner mouth, no more stinky clothes, etc.)... I've also had another improvement that I can only attribute to vaping.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes (so I wasn't diabetic but I wasn't normal either). Anyway, from the point of diagnosis I lost 35 pounds, worked out more, changed my diet, started medication, etc. While I brought down my blood sugar levels a bit, it was inch by inch and I was still in the pre-diabetic range. And in fact, my blood sugar levels had actually gone down but then went back up (despite keeping the weight off, eating right, etc.). If you have a genetic issue with blood sugar, there's only so much you can do to fix it (it's not just an issue of diet and exercise).
Last month though I got my most recent results. These results were based on a time frame in which I had quit smoking and was vaping only. The result? My blood sugar levels were now within the normal range and my A1C had dropped from 6.4 to 5.8 (the lowest I had ever got my A1C down to before vaping was 6.0, which is the threshold at which they diagnose you as pre-diabetic).
It's known that smoking increases your blood sugar levels. Once I quit smoking and switch to vaping, for me, it seemed to be what made the difference. Given my diet, exercise, weight, and everything else were normal, the sudden drop from pre-diabetic to normal can really only be explained by quitting smoking (and starting vaping).
Since I started vaping only four-to-five months ago I've gone from 12mg nicotine juice (in conjunction with smoking) to 7mg nicotine juice (and not smoking at all). E-cigarettes not only helped me quit smoking but they are proving to be highly effective at helping me decrease my addiction to nicotine. It's my hope that in the next six months or so I'll be down to no nicotine in my e-juice (the liquid you put in your e-cigarette). At which point I'll be able to finally say that I've completely broken my addiction to nicotine.
This is another reason I'm so disgusted by the government right now. While they raise taxes on cigarettes they are also actively telling Canadians NOT to use e-cigarettes as they may be harmful to your health. Coincidence that the gov makes billions off cigarettes and makes nothing (other than HST) off e-cigarettes?
There's just a level of hypocrisy and, in my opinion, immorality, in how this government is behaving on this issue that I've hit the wall... I'll never vote Conservative again.
From a PR perspective the government clearly wants more money and how they go about getting it is a PR nightmare. They've chosen the easy route to start... go after minority populations, in this case smokers. And sure, they'll lose some support from voters like me, but they probably figure they can take that hit.
The real question becomes, now that they are maxing out taxes on the smokers, who is next?
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