PUZZLER OVER SMOKING
Store operator questions new tobacco rule
Ansuya Brahmania shakes her head in disbelief at the federal government’s decision to legalize marijuana next year, but ban the sale of menthol tobacco products.
“Lots of people are surprised that they are legalizing marijuana and yet they are putting restrictions on tobacco,” said Brahmania, owner of Spunky’s Smokes and Nuttery Bar at the Victoria Square Shopping Centre.
Health Canada announced April 5 that the Tobacco Act would be amended to ban the use of menthol in cigarettes, blunt wraps and most cigars sold in Canada. The nationwide ban came into effect on Monday.
The recent ban builds on changes that came into force in 2009 and 2015, which banned the use of flavours, such as chocolate and bubble gum, in all cigarettes, blunt wraps and most cigars.
Restricting the use of menthol flavouring is the latest plank in the Government of Canada’s overall tobacco strategy to reduce the appeal of smoking to youths.
Brahmania questions that strategy. At her store, she sold far more menthol cigarettes to customers over 40.
That wasn’t the finding of a Canada-wide study that showed menthol is far more popular among youths than adults, said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society.
According to the national Youth Smoking Survey for the 2012-13 school year, 29 per cent of high school students who smoked lit up menthol cigarettes compared to five per cent of Canadian adults who smoked menthol.
“We’re very concerned that menthol makes it easier for kids to experiment and get hooked to nicotine,” Cunningham said.
Saskatchewan is one of three provinces without flavoured tobacco legislation.
A lot of flavoured tobacco products, other than cigarettes, remain on the market and should be banned by the Saskatchewan government, as other provinces have done, Cunningham said.
The ban on menthol cigarettes caught many of Brahmania’s customers by surprise — including two who were in the store on Friday.
People under 18 can’t enter the store, which sells a variety of products besides tobacco including vaping supplies, hookah pipes, nuts and confectionary items.
“It’s getting harder and harder day by day to run the business,” Brahmania said.
Over the 31 years her store has operated at the mall, there have been increasing tobacco restrictions.
She was running her business at a different location in the mall in 2002 when the provincial Tobacco Control Act banned the display and promotion of tobacco products where children could see them. Many merchants used curtains or doors to cover up tobacco products.
Brahmania had the clear windows of her business sprayed white so no one could see the tobacco on display. The doors at her current location are a solid white to preclude anyone from peering in.
While it’s too soon to determine the impact of the menthol ban on her business, Brahmania wonders why liquor stores don’t face the same restrictions with regard to their menthol or flavoured products.
“Still, we have to obey the law,” she said in resignation.
Saskatchewan continues to have a high rate of youth smokers so the Ministry of Health, in co-operation with the regional health authorities, established a youth test shopper program in 2014.
Specially trained youth, under the supervision of a tobacco enforcement officer, attempt to purchase tobacco products from tobacco retail outlets.
During the 2016-17 fiscal year, 160 products were purchased from 1,412 visits to tobacco retailers (an 11.3 per cent non-compliance rate), according to the ministry.
The Saskatchewan youth test shopper program transitioned from education to enforcement in April. Since then, 10 summary offence tickets have been issued to Saskatchewan retailers.
The ticket fines for selling to a minor are $310 for sales clerks or $580 for the business.
Court-assessed fines can range from $3,000 for a first offence to $50,000 for a fourth or subsequent offence. Retailers can also be prohibited from selling tobacco products if found guilty of multiple offences.
Brahmania trains her staff not to sell cigarettes to minors, but worries they might unknowingly misjudge a customer’s age.
“I’m accountable, me — as well as the staff,” she said.