Thank you for smoking in Manitoba

In the throes of a nicotine addiction, smoking becomes as reliable and welcome as a best friend. You can wholeheartedly trust the effects of a cigarette. A cigarette will always relieve anxiety and stimulate a slight rush of euphoria and chemically induced motivation. And the effects of nicotine, and the act of smoking, is associative. For me, smoking was always associated with drinking and writing and, sadly, with being outside. Others like a puff after sex or a good meal.

Christopher Hitchens, noted American journalist/atheist once wrote: “In my case, most of my bad habits are connected with the only way I know to make a living. In order to keep reading and writing, I need the junky energy that scotch can provide, and the intense short-term concentration that nicotine can help supply. To be crouched over a book or a keyboard, with these conditions of mingled reverie and alertness, is my highest happiness.”

Of course, many of the anxieties that smoking is used to relieve are caused by nicotine withdrawal itself. But this doesn’t make the habit any harder to quit.

“My keystone addiction is to cigarettes,” Hitchens wrote in a highly entertaining Vanity Fair column. “Without which cocktails and caffeine (and food) are meaningless.”

After five years of voracious smoking, I quit over a month ago. The oddest thing about stopping, is that you’re never fully aware that your addiction is over. I’m still anticipating my next relapse, where I get to step outside of my favorite bar for a few pulls on a bottle of beer, and a couple long drags of a cigarette. I’m still highly aware that my dedication to a relatively healthy lifestyle may be temporary, hell, it probably IS temporary. But each day the benefits of not smoking become clearer, and the sudden cravings diminish. It is that associative element (of being outside with a bottle in hand) of the habit that makes it so unbearably difficult to quit.

Speaking with Murray Gibson, the executive director of the Manitoba Tobacco Reduction Alliance, helped me realize that Manitoba may not be doing it’s best to help combat associative smoking, or the availability of cigarettes in places where people are most prone to relapse.

“We need to look at the number of places where tobacco is readily available,” he said. “We need to look at a reduction of where we can licence tobacco sales.”

Manitoba businesses are licensed just once for the sale of tobacco and the qualifications for this one-shot license aren’t strong enough, Gibson said.

My favorite bar has a vending machine with three brands available in both king-size and regular measurements. That machine is the worst kind of temptation, not during complete drunkenness (any long-time smoker knows that a cigarette only makes you sick at a certain stage of inebriation), but during the first three (or four) drinks.

“I think there’s a feeling among politicians that we’ve done the tobacco thing but the reality is that the 20 per cent number of smokers in Manitoba has stagnated,” he said.

Gibson attributes this to the availability of cigarettes in pharmacies in Manitoba and the ability to smoke on restaurant and bar patios. Manitoba is among only three provinces that still sell cigarettes in pharmacies. Saskatchewan is considering a ban on the practice, which would leave Manitoba alone with British Columbia and one territory; the Yukon.

“We [Manitoba] spend $605,000 annually on tobacco reduction,” said Gibson. “We’re one of the lowest in Canada.”

According to Gibson, The Center for Disease Control recommends seven dollars per capita minimum spending on smoking reduction/cessation. That would mean a minimum recommended investment of over $7 million.

What do you think? Is Manitoba doing enough to reduce smoking rates in the province? I don’t know about you, but I need a cigarette.