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Canada has finally reached the point where activists can talk about an endgame on tobacco control: stamping out the few remaining smokers and entering a post-cigarette age.

The catch, of course, is that tobacco control efforts have stalled, with about one-fifth of the population stubbornly continuing to light up.

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And so, as reported on the weekend by the National Post’s Tom Blackwell, a conference in Kingston this fall will look at some radical ideas for snuffing out the habit once and for all (or, at least, perhaps bringing the smoking rate down to about five per cent of the population).

There’s some nobility in this. Smoking is bad, really bad, and people shouldn’t do it. But who are these experts to tell other Canadians what they may and may not do? This is the great issue left unaddressed by the anti-smokers. After all, as we move, admittedly slowly, toward legalizing marijuana, at least part of the justification is: “Well, if people want to get stoned, who are we to tell them not to?”