Remember last weekend when you were outside the bar and as you walked past the smokers you suddenly got nostalgic for Kool-Aid? It was probably because you got a whiff of someone smoking a Prime Time, flavored cigarettes that have been attracting a lot of criticism for supposedly being aimed at young people. Ken already posted about this bill that outlaws “the use of cigarillos with candy and fruit flavors added to lure young smokers”. Prime Time’s and several other nearly identical brands of flavored smokes seem to have exploded in popularity in the last couple years. I’ll admit from time to time I myself have been known to ask people what time it is so that then they look at their watch and tell me the actual time, I can correct them by saying “nope, its PRIME TIME,” as I spark one up.
Regardless of the fact that I enjoy them there is almost no denying that they are designed to attract teenagers. Even the packaging is suggestive, most are sold in individual tubes and comparisons to tubes of fruity lip gloss meant for teenage girls are apt to say the least. The bill is controversial though because the majority of these flavored smokes are coming from the U.S and the hardworking tobacco farmers of Kentucky and Tennessee. We’ll see if overwhelming pressure manages to scuttle the legislation, though at this point I think it would look terrible for us to reverse a bill that protects our citizens just because of political pressure from the States.
For everyone in Winnipeg who smokes Prime Times, and I know there are a lot of you, just consider how hard it was to find Grape and Peach PT’s already, now you’ll have to go to the black market to enjoy some of that delicious poison. :S
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/GAM.20090617.IBTOBACCO17ART1936/GIStory/
For more on the debate
Image Smoking, like dad Originally uploaded by redinsect
