The tobacco power walls in convenience stores are gone but controversy lingers like smoke in an unventilated room.
At Wednesday's monthly board of health meeting here, member Ron Hamilton said it is unfair for off-reserve tobacco retailers not to be able to display cigarettes, while they are in plain view in stores on Tyendinaga Territory.
"I think we should be all on the same playing field ... because it does hurt our corner stores," he said, echoing the complaint of Pine Street Variety store owner Cam Smith in a May 31 story in The Intelligencer, the day the ban on tobacco displays went into effect.
As well, Hamilton said cheap contraband cigarettes, which can be had for as little as $12 for a plastic bag of 200, are "infiltrating" our youth.
In The Intelligencer story, Smith said he had witnessed teens leaving a local high school buying the bags of cigarettes from a female seller.
The sale of illegal cigarettes on the reserve has long been a bone of contention with the health unit.
"We've been very outspoken (on) contraband cigarettes," said Dr. Richard Schabas, medical officer of health. Two years ago, Schabas brought the problem to the attention of the province, but no action was taken.
However, Ottawa recently promised to beef up RCMP contraband units to try to stop the importation and sales of contraband tobacco.
"(The) federal government will be cracking down on contraband cigarettes," Schabas told board members.
Bob Dolan, who represents Belleville on the board, asked if the police had been requested to do more here.
"Has there ever been a suggestion to OPP (for) spot checks?" he said. That would involve police sitting outside the Tyendinaga Territory and checking vehicles for contraband tobacco, similar to a seat-belt blitz.
"It seems you can just go in there and buy a dozen cartons of cigarettes and drive right out," Dolan said.
Schabas said neither the federal nor provincial government seemed "keen" to take that kind of action.
"There's been a real reluctance to tackle this problem," he said.
That concluded the discussion at Wednesday's health board meeting.
But on the question of whether children could be turned from smoking by a ban on tobacco power walls, Schabas, when requested by The Intelligencer, provided research conducted by the University of Toronto in the weeks leading up to the ban.
An examination of more than 480 establishments in 20 Ontario cities found that 89 per cent had tobacco products placed within one foot of candy.
While there was no proof that the tobacco advertising ban would work, the research also found that tobacco promotions were higher among stores close to a school and in lower-income neighbourhoods.
In Canada, 10 of 13 provinces and territories have restricted tobacco advertising at point-of-sale (stores, gas stations) or will do so by July 2008. As well, internationally, the list includes New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Thailand, and South Africa.