Bigtobaccotakedown’s Blog

Action Alert from Canadian Cancer Society:

The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology is meeting tomorrow, Wed. Sept. 30, at 4:00pm.  This is the final scheduled meeting where witnesses are to be heard.  It is possible that immediately following the witnesses tomorrow, the Committee will give clause by clause consideration to the bill.  It is at this point that any amendments will be considered.  The Committee could approve the bill without amendments, which is what health organizations are recommending.

The tobacco industry has increased its lobbying campaign, and we need to respond.

Please take a moment to email all Senators on the Committee to ask them to oppose any amendments to weaken the bill, including the name of your organization in your email.  Please ask your networks to do the same.  Here is an email list of Senators on the Committee that you could cut and paste into your email:

callbc@sen.parl.gc.ca; cookj@sen.parl.gc.ca; cordyj@sen.parl.gc.ca; dyckli@sen.parl.gc.ca; egglea@sen.parl.gc.ca; fairbj@sen.parl.gc.ca; keonw@sen.parl.gc.ca; pepinl@sen.parl.gc.ca; martiny@sen.parl.gc.ca; eatonn@sen.parl.gc.ca; kfl@sen.parl.gc.ca; stratt@sen.parl.gc.ca; ogilvk@sen.parl.gc.ca;

Here is a sample email (but it is best if you say things in your own words, or add a short personal/organizational perspective):

Dear Honourable Senators:

I am writing to urge you to support Bill C-32 without any amendments.  Please oppose the amendment supported by the tobacco industry that would allow flavours in cigarettes.  This would weaken the bill.

Yours truly,

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Research Coordinator (2 Positions)

Initial Assignment:  Canadian Action Network for the Advancement, Dissemination, and Adoption of Practice-informed Tobacco Treatment (CAN-ADAPTT) Practice-Based Research Network, Addictions Program

Position Description:

The Nicotine Dependence Clinic CAN-ADAPTT project at the Centre for Addiction and MentalHealth is seeking two highly energetic and motivated individuals with project coordination experience and computer skills to work on a knowledge translation and better practices project as Research Coordinators.  The candidates must be able to work independently and effectively in a multidisciplinary team environment.  He/she will maintain contact with non-CAMH partners and program participants and other key stakeholders.  This position is currently located at 175 College Street but may involve some travel.  Reporting to the CAN-ADAPTT Manager, you will provide coordination for a segment of the Canadian Action Network.  You will work closely with the Manager and Network Coordinator to:

• Proactively engage health care providers, researchers, and policy makers to participate in the network
• Stimulate and solicit ideas for new studies from practitioners and researchers
• Facilitate liaisons between practitioner/providers and researchers
• Organize regional meetings, workplans, and assessments at participating practices
• Liaise with community organizations and other tobacco control projects
• Administer the regional network
• Coordinate research projects
• Develop conference abstracts and submissions

Qualifications:

The successful candidate will possess a Master’s degree in a related field.  This position requires superior negotiation skills, the ability to build and maintain relationships in order to negotiate within a large project with multiple stakeholders.  Leadership and team player skills are essential as well as a proactive attitude and a willingness to be committed and strive for continuous improvement.  The successful candidate should have the ability to explain complex issues in plain language both verbally and in writing, be skilled in web-based collaboration, and have demonstrated proficiency with a variety of software packages including project management, word-processing and presentation software.  You will have excellent interpersonal, communication (verbal/written), organizational skills and a solid understanding of research methodology.  You have demonstrated experience required to assist in the development of research proposals, review literature, and write reports.  You have an understanding of provincial health networks, health care professionals and researchers.  Candidates require the ability to work effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds.Knowledge of tobacco control programs, policy, and research would be definite assets.  Bilingualism (French/English) and/or proficiency in a second language would be an asset.

Please Note: These two full-time, 7-month contract positions (until March 31, 2010) are part of the

OPSEU Bargaining Unit.

Salary Range: $28.24 – $38.09 per hour

Please forward your résumé to:

Human Resources

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

1001 Queen Street West

Toronto, Ontario                                                        Fax:  (416) 583-4316

M6J 1H4                                                                      E-mail:  jobs@camh.net

Please remember to include the File Number when applying.

File Number:                    09423

As an employment equity employer CAMH actively seeks Aboriginal peoples, visible minorities,

women, people with disabilities, (including people with who have experienced mental health

and substance use challenges), and additional diverse identities for our workforce.

From Rob Cunningham at the Canadian Cancer Society:

Yesterday, the Senate rose for the summer. The Senate will return on Tuesday Sept. 15.

Regrettably, Bill C-32 did not pass prior to the recess.

Bill C-32 did receive First Reading in the Senate on June 17. On Monday June 22, Second Reading debate did begin, with a speech by Conservative Senator Dr. Wilbert Keon, the heart surgeon. To read the speech, visit Hansard:

English: http://www.parl.gc.ca/40/2/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/049db_2009-06-22-E.htm?Language=E&Parl=40&Ses=2#50
French: http://www.parl.gc.ca/40/2/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-f/049db_2009-06-22-f.htm?Language=F&Parl=40&Ses=2#50

Bill C-32 was not further debated yesterday.

To be adopted by the Senate, Bill C-32 will need to receive Second Reading, Committee consideration and approval, and Third Reading.

Delays in adopting the bill will result in delay implementing the bill’s provisions. The ban on advertising in newspapers and magazines comes into force on the day of Royal Assent. That means that Canada will face another summer of tobacco advertising in publications. The ban on flavoured cigarillos, blunt wraps and cigarettes (menthol excepted) comes into force 6 months after Royal Assent at the manufacturer level, and 9 months after Royal Assent at the retail level. Thus these flavoured products will remain available to kids for at least three months longer than if the bill had been adopted by now.

Thank you to the many, many people who contacted Senators urging adoption of Bill C-32. While unfortunately the bill did not pass prior to the summer recess, this broad communication of support from across Canada has been very important and helpful. All of this will help in the autumn as we seek Senate passage. The Senate has heard from many voices about the importance of this bill passing. Thank you.

Note that opponents of the bill have also been communicating to Senators. A further reason why our voice has been — and will be –important.

The importance of this bill is underlined by the fact that the bill has passed the industry “scream” test. The industry, especially Philip Morris (the RBH parent company), is very concerned by this bill. Cigarettes in Canada are basically unflavoured except for menthol, and except for perhaps less than 1% of the market that are U.S. imports, for a few other brands such as Gauloises or Gitanes (which are apparently made in the RBH factory in Quebec City.) In an effort to block the bill, the industry has come up with bogus claims of trade violations, bogus claims of job losses at the Quebec City RBH factory, among other misinformation.

With advertising increasingly being restricted the industry will place increasing importance on flavourings to attract and retain consumers – that is if the industry is allowed to get away with it. Fortunately, Bill C-32 will clamp down on this potential avenue. Internationally, flavourings in cigarettes are more important than is currently the case in Canada.

On Friday, about 100 employees of the Quebec City factory of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges were bused in for the protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office (Langevin Building on Wellington Street). The group also went across the street to Parliament Hill. There was very little media interest in this.

While new articles as of late challenge nicotine addiction and all addiction it is important to remember, as well stated by Dr. Peter Selby:

“There was a time when people believed the world was flat too.

Many diseased states are amenable to volition and choice. Just because someone can control their cholesterol, type II diabetes or hypertension with behavioural interventions doesn’t mean these aren’t legitimate chronic diseases.”

Additionally, as Dr. Greaves says, “this sometimes said about those who smoke – that it is their choice. But in this case it isn’t an adult choice since almost all smokers become addicted as children. In fact today’s smokers are the children who became addicted when the tobacco industry promoted to them and health organizations did little to protect them.”

Addiction is voluntary, author contends in new book
Updated Wed. Jun. 17 2009 10:08 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The idea that addiction is a disease and that addicts do not have control over their disease, has been a pillar of belief of the psychology community for decades. Yet Gene Heyman, a lecturer in psychology at Harvard Medical School, has set off a firestorm by questioning this time-honoured assumption in his new book, Addiction: A Disorder of Choice.
Heyman argues that addiction is very much governed by personal choice and is not an involuntary illness. He says the long-held belief that addicts cannot control their addiction may be well-meaning but is ultimately wrong.
The proof, Heyman says, lies in the number of people who are able to beat their addiction and the reasons they do.
“When people say that addiction is a disease they mean that drug users have become involuntary, that they simply can’t say no,” Heyman told Canada AM Wednesday.
“I asked the question: What factors influence drug use to halt in addicts? Things like values and laws, being worried about being arrested, financial matters and respect from family — these are the things that influence decisions.
“And so I looked to see if those factors influenced drug use in addicts. And it turns out when you look at the literature broadly, that’s exactly what happens. So I take a different conceptual framework.”
The problem with the field of addiction is that people have restricted their analysis, says Heyman. They contend when you consider the terrible toll that addiction takes on the lives of addicts, “no one would choose to be an addict.”
Heyman agrees that yes, addicts are self-destructive, but this does not mean they will not change their behaviour once the costs of continuing their addiction become too great.
“I began looking at biographies, at the epidemiological literature, at studies where anthropologists lived with addicts, and what we see again and again is the pattern of behaviour where the factors such as the desire for the respect of children or parents or worries about finances lead addicts to stop using drugs. So that’s the real test,” he explains.
He says when addiction experts tell addicts their addiction disease is “involuntary,” it doesn’t help them. If anything, it may give them a crutch to enable them to continue. “What the data show is that most addicts actually quit. And this is encouraging. To be told that you have a chronic relapsing disease that has no cure cannot be helpful — but especially if it’s not the truth,” says Heyman.
“But the truth, when we look at the data, is that most addicts quit, and they can be encouraged to quit much sooner. I think what is required to help someone quit is the knowledge that it is possible and that there’s a better life once you do quit.
“Smoking is an addiction. And since the 1964 publishing of the U.S. Surgeon General’s report, about 80 per cent of smokers have quit, and they typically quit on their own. So we know that people can quit an addiction.”