Ontario to sue tobacco companies for $50 Billion

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/090929/canada/canada_toronto_ont_tobacco

i have a few questions about this.

I thought the taxes on cigarettes were supposed to pay for the health care costs?

Cant the tobacco companies sue Ontario for providing them with incentives to start growing in Ontario?

If tobacco is so bad, why is it that Ontario is allowing it to be sold?


i for one cant stand the smell of tobacco most times and thinks its ridiculous that people smoke. But quite frankly as long as its not bothering me. ITS THEIR CHOICE. A long long long long time has passed since people who are smoking do not realize the dangers. When did they first start putting warnings on packages? 1970? Lets go with that date. fine then. ANYONE who started smoking after that date can not sue tobacco companies. further Governments can not sue for health care costs incurred by anyone who started after that date.

Sound fair? The government is allowing smoking, how the frick can they sue the tobacco companies? shouldn't they be suing themselves?

ooo hey this brings up another couple of points though...

If(when?) Marijuanna is "legalized and taxed" will the governments wait and sue them 50 years down the road?

How come alcohol companies are not being sued?

When will fatty food companies be sued?

Maybe us smokers should sue the government for allowing dangerous substances to be sold to us?

sounds like the right approach to me.

But watch out for the counter-sue. If they get a list of smokers they might try to hit you up for the $50B instead of going after the tobacco companies.

Deank wrote:i have a few questions about this.

I thought the taxes on cigarettes were supposed to pay for the health care costs?

If tobacco is so bad, why is it that Ontario is allowing it to be sold?

1) The tax revenue does not even come close to the added health care costs caused by smoking. A better approach would be a system where smokers have to pay for their health care and are no longer covered by universal insurance.

2) Yes they are still allowing it to be sold, but I am pretty sure they are working on a law to ban the stuff and make it completely illegal. They are just going step by step.

Ban tobacco. Can't imagine why it is allowed in this day and age. Make it available by prescription only for those that "have to have it" and illegal for everybody else.

eViL tRoLl wrote:

Deank wrote:i have a few questions about this.

I thought the taxes on cigarettes were supposed to pay for the health care costs?

If tobacco is so bad, why is it that Ontario is allowing it to be sold?

1) The tax revenue does not even come close to the added health care costs caused by smoking. A better approach would be a system where smokers have to pay for their health care and are no longer covered by universal insurance.

2) Yes they are still allowing it to be sold, but I am pretty sure they are working on a law to ban the stuff and make it completely illegal. They are just going step by step.

Wrong on point one!! Then you may as well deny health care on several fronts....like fat people who keep eating fast food, alcoholics, extreme sports participants...the list could be endless.....are you able to say that you are a perfect specimen deserving of care more than me? Think about the implications of your words.....

You've presumed that after making smokers pay for their health care that other "vices" will be next. Possible, but I doubt Canadian society will allow that to happen.

I am not presuming anything but simply pointing out that if one is gonna deny smokers health care because of their unhealthy habits then lets deny health care to others who engage in various unhealthy or dangerous activities....

grumpy old man wrote:Ban tobacco. Can't imagine why it is allowed in this day and age. Make it available by prescription only for those that "have to have it" and illegal for everybody else.

Under a Libertarian government, we wouldn't have to ban things that might be bad for us. Think about it. If we started with tabacco, where would it end?

Government bans too much, imho. We don't needed bureaucracy trying to save people from possibly harming themselves. It's an excuse to create unionized jobs so gov't can gloat about lowering the unemployment rate. Bah, says I.

legalize everything.......let Darwin's Law weed out the idgits. Oh that will not work though.....the stupid tend to breed at three times the rate of the smart.

I was watching a show today and they were discussing how New York wants to add a 15% tax on high fat and high sugar foods and beverages....I say DO IT!!! They tax tobacco and alcohol, may as well tax McDonalds.

Yes smoking causes illness but so does obesity.

Miz point wrote:legalize everything.......let Darwin's Law weed out the idgits. Oh that will not work though.....the stupid tend to breed at three times the rate of the smart.

... ban the breeding of idgits?

Goth_chic wrote:I was watching a show today and they were discussing how New York wants to add a 15% tax on high fat and high sugar foods and beverages....I say DO IT!!! They tax tobacco and alcohol, may as well tax McDonalds.

Yes smoking causes illness but so does obesity.

Sure, but where does it end? You can eat fast food in moderation without it being significantly detrimental to your health.

Triniman wrote: We don't needed bureaucracy trying to save people from possibly harming themselves.

They can harm themselves as much as they want - the more the better so they die sooner!

I just don't want to pay for their excessive health service use, I don't want to inhale their toxic stench, and I don't want to see and step on their diseased cigarette butts that are littering the sidewalks.

Yeah but Trin many folks do not eat in moderation.

Exactly Miz P. Obesity is on the rise and it is getting way out of control. I rarely eat McDonalds I find it tastes gross. I prefer to cook my own food.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/life-vie/obes-eng.php

Same but that Angelo's double cheeseburger was freakin awesome!

Goth_chic wrote:Exactly Miz P. Obesity is on the rise and it is getting way out of control. I rarely eat McDonalds I find it tastes gross. I prefer to cook my own food.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/life-vie/obes-eng.php

When you say McDonalds, do you mean just them or fast food in general?

I mean most fast food. I prefer to eat my own cooking I do eat subway once in a while. The hubby and I like to try new restaurants when we can. The last one we tried was Fude and it was good.

Amazing, but not surprising.

This was done in the US, and it worked.

I'm guessing with all of the smoking location restrictions that have been placed over the last number of years, its finally knocked down the amount of smokers in some numbers ( I'm not sure how much, but I'm betting some more have quit since.. ) and perhaps provincial gov't in Ontario has noticed that tax revenues for smoking has reduced. Some irony here is that their own political measures in making it look like they care about non smokers is starting to bite them in the ass monetarily.

So let's sue the tobacco companies! Let's not restrict the substance! Why? It makes too much money! So lets look good and go after " the bad guys " and get money out of them instead!

What a farce this is. Dean's right. The gov't is just as responsible for all of this as the tobacco companies are.

Miz point wrote:legalize everything.......let Darwin's Law weed out the idgits. Oh that will not work though.....the stupid tend to breed at three times the rate of the smart.

More people for us to manipulate and control, we can build large armies with the breeding power of stupid people.