Letters, Nov. 23, 2019: Vaping can be a better alternative to smoking cigarettes
Credit to Author: Carolyn Soltau| Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2019 02:00:48 +0000
As an adult smoker, who smoked from the time I was 16 until age 54, I never thought anything would get me off cigarettes.
Cigarettes were very expensive and they were affecting my health negatively. As much as I loved smoking — I knew it was time to give it up.
It has now been over a year since I quite smoking and starting vaping. My health has been incredible, it is amazing how fast your lungs can feel better. So much so that I took up cycling and even did a bike trip from Paris to London. Before quitting I could hardly do half-a-block of uphill riding without being so much out of breath and thinking I was dying from a heart attack.
The whole idea behind vaping, at least for me, was to try to subtract myself from tobacco. I love the fruity flavours because it’s not tobacco. I understand fully that I still have an addiction to nicotine, but that is a small price to pay in order to be able to breathe and become a healthy, active individual.
Adult smokers, who feel that this is a better alternative to smoking, shouldn’t have a punitive tax applied to them.
It’s a good start banning flavours from gas stations, but why not ban it being sold there outright?
I kind of fear the day when they start banning flavours. I don’t want to go back to smoking. I don’t want tobacco flavours. That was the whole point of quitting in the first place.
Please don’t make it worse for adults smokers who have found vaping a much better alternative to smoking cigarettes.
Lisa Colgan, North Vancouver
I didn’t get any further in reading The Vancouver Sun than the article about panhandling before I was compelled to write a letter. Where is the logic in fining poor people for trying to find the ways and means of supporting themselves? It stated at the end of the story that 116 tickets were issued under the Safe Streets Act in 2018, but how many of those tickets were paid?
Panhandling has been around for centuries. That doesn’t make it legal, but it does underscore the long-standing problems our society has had with accommodating the poor and homeless. I agree with Meenakshi Mannoe of the Pivot Legal Society that we need to talk with panhandlers and hear their stories and then try to find solutions, perhaps even including some of them on an advisory board. Fining someone for their behaviour isn’t finding a solution. Forbidding them from certain areas isn’t finding a solution. Asking them “move on” isn’t finding a solution.
I volunteer at the Extreme Weather Shelter in White Rock and have attended forums on the poor and homeless and I can tell The Sun readers from my experience that not all of the homeless are panhandlers, and not all of the homeless are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs, and that not all of the homeless have mental-health concerns. Many are just “homeless” (seniors, medically fragile, unemployed, etc.).
If an adult chooses to provide some money, food or clothing to a homeless person that is his/her “good deed” for the day and his/her choice. However, I do believe the safety of panhandlers is important and that panhandling on a medium in a high traffic area or at a traffic light isn’t in the best interests of safety of the panhandler.
Surely something more progressive than legislating against the poor and further marginalizing them can be done?
Bonnie Gillis, Surrey
Steveston to Ladner, Steveston to the ferry, Fraser Street to Richmond. Replacement for the old No. 5 bridge. Downtown to the Nanaimo ferry. Deep Cove to Burnaby, to Vancouver.
I’m sure anyone who relies on bridges and tunnels to cross the Fraser River would have ideas of more locations for crossings spanning the river. It would be great for cyclists … especially as electric bikes become more popular.
Christine Miller, Tsawwassen
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