Smoking Is A Religious Issue???

We are pissing $900K down the drain. Indians are not Canadian citizens and are exempt from Canadian law plus they are one of the major benefactors of the illegal cigarette industry and does anyone think they will change anything if the study recommends smoking be banned during their "traditional" rites.

Tobacco Use In Native Ceremonies To Be Studied
Anti-smoking Strategy

Meghan Hurley
CanWest News Service

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Canadian researchers are looking at the use of tobacco in First Nations religious ceremonies in the hope it will lead to a strategy to cut down smoking among Aboriginal youth.

A $990,000 grant has been given for the five-year research project that aims to reduce the 60% of First Nations youth abusing tobacco, said Sheila Hardy, director of Academic Native Affairs at Laurentian University.

Researching the traditional use of tobacco in First Nations religious ceremonies will be an integral part of the project, said Ms. Hardy, who is part of the research team

"We are looking at how we can work that tradition in to promote tobacco use in a good way."

Advocating the use of tobacco for spiritual purposes will help to decrease the number of youth who abuse tobacco, Ms. Hardy said.

Sonia Isaac-Mann, senior researcher for the Assembly of First Nations, who will be overseeing the project, added. "It gives them a basis on respecting tobacco and tobacco is sacred and it's not meant to be used in the way it's being used now. To have a respect for it and understand it will actually be a deterrent."

Developing cessation programs specifically for aboriginal youth will be another focus of the research project, Ms. Hardy said.

"First Nations youth have a rate of smoking that is twice that of the general population of Canada," Ms. Hardy said.

"The misuse of tobacco is what's problematic and that's what we want to prevent and intervene with."

Ms. Isaac-Mann has identified female aboriginal youth as an area of interest.

"One of the biggest issues is that young women are starting to smoke earlier and that has a major impact on who they are and how they develop as an individual," Ms. Isaac-Mann said.

"I would like to see what the positive impact of preventing a youth from smoking will have on their life."

Dr. Peter Selby, a clinical director at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health at University of Toronto, is part of the research team and said aboriginal youth need to be the focus of their work.

"From some of the calls I've had, they are talking about kids as young as five or six that are smoking," Dr. Selby said.

"This is one of those Canadian tragic stories. Ours is just one study but there is more to this than what meets the eye."

The project has been announced three months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper axed the First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Strategy, which addressed tobacco abuse.

© National Post 2006