News
releases
June 20, 2005
Take
tobacco out of the hands of business corporations—report
(Ottawa)
– Because the public health goal of reducing tobacco use
directly conflicts with the tobacco industry’s profit
motive, the way to overcome the health, social and
economic problems caused by “big tobacco” is to take the
business of supplying cigarettes out of their hands and
put it into the hands of. public organizations with a
clear public health mandate. This is the main
recommendation of a new study published by the Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives and prepared by
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
Curing the Addiction to Profits: A
Supply-Side Approach to Phasing Out Tobacco argues
that, as long as the supply of cigarettes is entrusted
to business corporations, their legal responsibility to
maximize
profits and dividends for their
shareholders will force them to oppose and undermine
public measures to reduce tobacco use.
“Business corporations are
the wrong choice for tobacco,” said Cynthia Callard one
of the authors. “They have a long and
well-documented history of working against public health
measures. And where the public interest is
vulnerable, Canadians have often chosen to place
public-interest agencies in control. This choice should
now be made for tobacco.”
The authors review the many
alternative forms of enterprise that are used to provide
goods and services like health care, education, energy
and culture. “There are many types of public-interest
enterprise that could provide cigarettes to smokers
while supporting public health goals,” said co-author
David Thompson. “These include familiar government and
non-government agencies: crown corporations,
co-operatives, non-profits and charities, as well as
more innovative models, like the community interest
corporation.”
“We need to change the very
nature of the corporate machine we have been fighting,”
says co-author Neil Collishaw. “Eliminating the
profit-motive from tobacco sales is a much more
effective way to bring this grinding public health
trench war--where we continue to lose five Canadians
each hour to tobacco--to a quicker end.
The authors provide several
models for how a public interest tobacco supplier could
be designed, managed and financed.
“There are few areas where
the need for fundamental change is more compelling than
in the case of tobacco,” said Bruce Campbell, Executive
Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“This report challenges government to build
transformation of corporate structures into public
health strategies, and shows how this could be done.”
Curing the Addiction to
Profits: A Supply-Side Approach to Phasing Out Tobacco
was prepared with financial support from Health
Canada and the Canadian Tobacco Control Research
Initiative and the engagement of Physicians for a
Smoke-Free Canada, the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives, and the Aurora Institute.
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For
Information or to order copies: 613 233 4878
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