Where is tobacco legislation?

> Comment on this story

I fear the tobacco legislation is under a cloud of smoke.

What started out as a bold and courageous initiative seems to have been dangerously delayed.

Every living being needs this legislation.

We need it to be strong and enforceable so that future generations will not be subjected to the second–hand smoke of today.

I have a loved one that was diagnosed with a different type of cancer. This type was not from tobacco.

During the many weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments my loved one painfully endured, I got to see and learn from the other patients as well as from the doctors. The word from them is not if but when you will get cancer.

More than 50 per cent of the patients there were being treated for tobacco related cancers.

I want to tell you about a patient that I’ll name Grace. Every day she came into the hospital with a smile on her face and a wooden cross tightly clutched in one hand.

She had lung cancer, but never smoked in her entire life.

Her cancer was given to her from her husband of 40–plus years.

He was a three to four pack a day smoker until they received the bad news that his wife had lung cancer.

He gave it up, but it was already too late.

Her cancer was derived from his second–hand smoke.

By the time the loved one was at the final stage of her treatments, Grace was no longer coming in for hers.

The word from the nurses was that she was put into Hospice care but she wanted everyone remaining to know that she wasn’t about to give in.

Her husband has to live out the rest of his life with this albatross.

People!

It doesn’t have to be like that!

We are in the majority!

Let your elected officials know that we need this legislation and we need it in the strongest language possible.

Have them open the door and let out the smoke so that we can breathe and smell fresh air again.

Michael Mandish