May 31st is the deadline for all stores to hide their cigarettes and all tobacco related paraphernalia from plain view. It will be illegal for any tobacco products to be displayed at any time, including during restocking or inventory checks. This is the last stage of the Smoke Free Ontario Act which became a law in 2006. Without cigarettes on display consumers will have to look through a binder in order to make their selection. The law even prohibits customers from touching the cigarettes before they pay for them.

Out of sight really means out of sight. The province is suggesting that in order to comply with the law that cigarettes be kept in overhead containers or drawers that are below the counter and totally invisible to customers. Doors that open in view of the customers are not acceptable. There are approximately 10,000 convenience stores in Ontario and at least half of them won’t be ready to hide their tobacco products by the May 31st because the store owners didn’t get the specific requirements until the end of January 2008. Many small stores derive the lion share of their income from the sale of cigarettes. In addition this new law will cause them to lose their retailing allowances, which are incentive fees that are paid by tobacco companies to ensure that their products are prominently placed. The special containers will also prove to be a financial hardship for many small shop owners with prices estimated in the average range of $2,500.00. The fines for noncompliance have yet to be finalized, but is assumed that first time fines would likely be $200.00 - $300.00.

It seems to me that we are being hypocritical. We have not banned the sale of cigarettes because we want to continue to raking in the huge tax dollars that generate. But, we want to make it as big a hardship for stores to sell them so that we can appear to be doing the right thing in the war against smoking. In the meantime the illegal cigarette trade is growing exponentially. What are we doing about it? Perhaps it time to take a real stand and make the sale of cigarettes and all tobacco products illegal instead of these half-hearted measures that continue to line the government’s pockets. Do you think that the sale of cigarettes should be banned altogether? Do you approve of the latest measure to hide all tobacco products? Do think that this will have an impact on teenage smoking?