World No Tobacco Day is observed March 31 each year. We celebrate the quitters of this drug and commemorate the disaster wreaked on humanity over the centuries. It is one day each year to reflect on progress, not ignore those hurt and rally those indifferent.
Smoking tobacco, as well as its use in other forms, is a silent weapon for a quiet war. It destroys the health of individuals and the wealth of nations. Cough, poor dentition, bronchitis, stroke, heart disease and cancer are a few of the many known sicknesses directly linked to tobacco use. Tobacco has no obvious nutritional benefit but does have over 200 chemicals toxic to human health and several dozen which cause cancer.
The scale is enormous. It’s global. In Africa where poor health abounds, millions of cigarettes are smoked daily. During the Biafran wars in Nigeria people exchanged their food for cigarettes. It is addictive and deadly. Smoking kills about half of all smokers usually from cancer. Tobacco use has killed more people than the world wars combined. Tobacco use is projected to kill about 1 billion people in this century.
Tobacco companies and governments would not have us ignorant. Labeled clearly on each package are ‘grave’ warnings such as ‘smoking kills’, ‘smokers die young’ and ‘smoking damages your health’. These are empty words for millions of users who seemingly could care less and continue to smoke defiantly and are in no hurry to quit.
This speaks volumes about humankind including those of us here in Anguilla. Respect for health and life is not sacred to all. It shows how we can be selfish and package, market and sell disease causing agents. It points to our poor decision-making and short term thinking. It highlights how we can turn a blind eye, pretend and rationalize.
Anguilla is not doing enough to curb and extinguish tobacco use. Speeches on this day, and some radio jingles, are hardly worthy of praise. Nothing changes and we just carry on. Healthcare professionals, doctors included, should be lobbying for the prohibition of tobacco sales. Teachers have rallied successfully for payment of their deferred salaries and should likewise rally for millions of dollars in tobacco profits to stop.
Our politicians can cement the burial of tobacco starting right here at home. Smoking is still a problem in Anguilla as in other countries. Cigarette smokers often agree it is not good for their health. There are shops and restaurants doing business without selling it.The end of tobacco imports to Anguilla will be a huge signal on the global stage. This mouse will roar. It would launch a domino effect in this island archipelago and beyond. We will be praised by an ever health conscious world-wide population for taking the right stand on what is not simply a health issue but a moral issue.
Remember the millions of cigarettes smoked in Africa? That tobacco is grown on arable lands that should be producing food for its local inhabitants. Jamaica is not producing enough food for its citizens or export, but has local tobacco farms. Second-hand smoke is a public health hazard that has killed millions; children should be protected from it even at home.
The dividends earned from the abolition of tobacco sales will be enormous. The improvement in health and the lives saved are priceless. We have the legal talent, medical evidence and political capital to see this completed. We can’t see it now, but with some roaring of our peoples, the teachers, preachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, students, moms and dads, tobacco is finished.
Action speaks louder than words and we must put a stop to this madness for money. We fought against him who wanted bones in our rice and pepper in our soup; likewise we shall end tobacco sales that can kill us. Our revolutionary leaders were willing to sacrifice their lives for us and likewise our merchants can sacrifice tobacco money to save us. They can massively help by not selling tobacco even before the laws are drafted.
We should have personal and political prohibitions on tobacco. Smokers should ‘kick the habit’ and government should ‘kill the habit’. The office of the AG should be asked to expedite this matter rather than ‘liberalize’ Ganja. This is a legal victory we all need and can celebrate.
Good things come to those who wait and we have waited much too long for World Tobacco Day to yield a tobacco-free people.
