Kahnawake to bar outside cigarette buyers
As of the new year, Kahnawake is barring visitors from buying cigarettes in its tobacco shops, in an effort to stop the spread of Covid.
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Kate
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Chris 12:51 on 2020-12-29 Permalink
Right, wouldn’t want the people they’re selling poison to to get sick! Smoking kills about 45k Canadians per year (covid at 15k). Also, a little late in the game to decide this, no?
Kate 13:29 on 2020-12-29 Permalink
They don’t want to get sick themselves either. Kahnawake closed itself off completely for a period early in the pandemic but reopened in June. I haven’t followed how their policy has evolved since then, and I don’t know why the cigarette stores are not already closed by the current lockdown rules, not being essential, but in general Quebec has learned it’s wiser not to intervene on Mohawk lands.
Michael Black 13:43 on 2020-12-29 Permalink
It’s their territory, their rules. The issue here is they don’t want outsiders coming because of the Virus, and apparently those cigarette buyers can be quite pushy. It’s significant that they’ve chosen health here, since at other times they’ve shown sovereignity in other ways.
There were stories last fall about people being mistreated at the big climate march, so few causes are completely pure.
Chris 14:45 on 2020-12-29 Permalink
>They don’t want to get sick themselves either
Ah, so even more selfless than at first glance! /s
>It’s their territory, their rules.
Which of course doesn’t make their rules any less open to criticism than anyone else’s rules on anyone else’s territory.
Allowing selling totally non-essential things (that hurt the respiratory system, during a respiratory virus pandemic!) while more benign and more essential things are forced closed is insane.
Better late than never though.
dwgs 14:47 on 2020-12-29 Permalink
Also, people drive their cars to go buy their smokes.
dhomas 20:15 on 2020-12-29 Permalink
Allison Cummins put it very well the first time this topic came up about cigarettes during a pandemic:
https://mtlcityweblog.com/2020/03/26/thursdays-initial-corona-stories/#comment-122302
Imagine trying to quit smoking now. I’ve quit smoking in the past, and stress is definitely something that makes you relapse. There’s probably no worse time than right now to try to quit smoking.
MarcG 20:49 on 2020-12-29 Permalink
As an ex-smoker and someone who has friends who still smoke I can vouch for this unfortunate fact. The first few years after I quit every time it changed seasons I would think about smoking, taste it, smell it, want it, and then it stopped. When the cold hit this year and I wasn’t feeling great it immediately popped into my mind. This is 10+ years after quitting.
Kate 10:06 on 2020-12-30 Permalink
MarcG, my mother smoked for years then quit, and told me much later that she still got a craving from time to time.
I’m glad I didn’t start, even though it meant sacrificing a large piece of being cool in high school.