As I was doing a brief scan of the news in Hamilton today, I came across an interesting link...called...The Police Blotter .  Of course out of shear curiosity I clicked on it and began to read what the Police had been occupying their time with recently. The type of news didn't surprise me....a guy stealing a case of beer from the beer store, a couple impaired drivers, however, the most frequent and somewhat violent crimes seemed to involve...cigarettes?

I guess that Cigarette crime shouldn't surprise us, since a pack of smokes is approximately $10.00. Considering that the local variety store or gas station carries perhaps 200 packs if not more, grabbing the till and the cigarettes can be an extremely lucrative theft job for the petty criminal, especially when there's a target on every street corner.

It's the "close to home" nature of cigarette crime that worries me. The victims are the people we see on a daily basis...the guy who owns the variety store at our corner and the gas station we go to all the time. These people are having their lives put on the line because someone wants to steal the cigarettes? How about other innocent people, adults and children, who may just be there...the wrong place at the wrong time? Cigarettes are affecting us more than just the human health concerns...they are bringing crime into our quiet neighborhoods and threatening the lives of our friends and family. They are increasing our crime statistics, which does have an impact on house values.

Perhaps the answer is more control. It's clear that Cigarettes have now become a commodity of choice for many criminals, so maybe selling them in controlled environments such as the LCBO or Beer Store would be a much better idea...for everyone!

Politicians are working hard to curtail cigarette use... current talks of banning smoking in cars with children and public areas such as parks. One has to ponder...why don't they just ban them completely...wouldn't that make more sense?