I was in the grocery store recently and witnessed a very troubling scene. The woman at the checkout didn’t have enough money to pay for her purchases. Her groceries consisted of a small roast of pork, some potatoes and broccoli, a quart of milk, a couple of tins of soup, and three packs of cigarettes. She flustered about as she wondered what to put back. Well, after some serious deliberation, she put back one pack of the smokes. This troubled her, as eating was all well and good, but what would she smoke for the rest of the week when the other two packs were gone? And I felt for her, I really did.
And this got me to wondering: how many other Canadians are having to suffer from not having enough to smoke? The cost of cigarettes has gone through the roof in recent years, as any smoker can tell you. How on earth do normal folks on fixed incomes afford these incredibly costly necessities? Especially those with families to feed in addition to their own tobacco needs?
That’s when I had the idea. Or should I say, The Idea. Why not establish a nationwide network of charitable outlets dedicated to providing tobacco to those who couldn’t afford it otherwise. People could simply show up once a week, no questions asked, and we’ll give them a couple of decks of smokes. Hopefully, their preferred brand, but smokers as a rule are not that rigid in their habits and will take any thing that’s offered.
Especially when it’s free.
So that’s the idea. Or rather, The Idea. Just need donations of a couple of hundred cartons to seed the first dispensary, then after that I reckon it will get a certain amount of critical momentum and become pretty much self-sustaining. As demand increases, supply will follow – it’s basic economics.
After all, who doesn’t love a free smoke?