Pushing back against tobacco and cannabis addiction
GN ramps up anti-smoking outreach for teens
Miranda Papatsie, 18, is flanked by pig lungs showing the effects of smoking on the organ at the Makkuttukkuvik Youth Centre in Iqaluit. A smoker since age 16, Papatsie encourages young people not to start. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Pizza, prizes and pigs’ lungs filled Makkuttukkuvik Youth Centre in Iqaluit on Thursday.
A trio of educators with the Department of Health’s tobacco and cannabis program visited the teens’ after-school hangout to share awareness-raising games and interactive learning tools about quitting tobacco and cannabis. It was the second such awareness event held at the centre since November.
Dorine Dounla, an analyst with Nunavut’s tobacco and cannabis program, displays nicotine-replacement therapies to teens at the Makkuttukkuvik Youth Centre. (Photo by Daron Letts)
More than a dozen adolescents, ranging in age from 13 to 18, dropped in at around 4 p.m. A stream of youth trickled in after.
Several among them stepped out for smoke breaks in between games of eight-ball on the club’s pool table.
“We’re here not to judge,” said Fellen Atienza, manager of the territory’s two-year-old tobacco and cannabis program. “We’re just informing them of the harms and risks of tobacco, cannabis, and now the emerging issue of vaping.”
More than half — 51 per cent — of Nunavummiut youth aged 12 to 19 smoke, which is six times the national average, according to statistics compiled by the Department of Health.
In 2018, the average smoking rate across the provinces was 16 per cent for people aged 12 and older. Similar data from Nunavut indicates a smoking rate of 74 per cent, Atienza said.
Some Nunavut communities have reported a smoking prevalence as high as 84 per cent, she added.
“That’s why we have a lot of work to do,” Atienza said.
Miranda Papatsie, 18, has been attending Makkuttukkuvik Youth Centre since she was 13. She has smoked since she was 16.
“It’s not good,” she said, while observing a demonstration set up at the youth centre to show how tobacco smoke can damage a pig’s lung.
Fellen Atiernza, manager of the territory’s two-year-old tobacco and cannabis program, displays some of the prizes awarded to teens on Thursday. (Photo by Daron Letts)
When Papatsie and her peers choose to quit, there are resources to support them, said Dorine Dounla, an analyst with the Tobacco and Cannabis Program.
Help is available for those on a journey toward quitting, in the form of a helpline at 1-866-368-7848, Atienza said.
Counsellors are available in English and French, with Inuktitut and Inuvialuqtun translation available.
The educators also brought their teaching tools to teens in Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet in December.
Teachers in Arviat and Pond Inlet have requested visits as well, Atienza said. Their message is being reinforced by an ad campaign on social media, she added.
The tobacco and cannabis program team’s next educational outreach event is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday in the grand hall of the Legislative Assembly.
There will be an open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday in the Nunavut Arctic College foyer in Iqaluit.
Country food and refreshments will be served. All are welcome to attend.
Tobacco products will never be banned by the government because it’s a huge money-making scheme!
Whenever a product is deemed very dangerous, the product gets recalled right away, but since the dangers of tobacco are long-term, it will never be taken off the shelves.
Good luck trying to convince the young people to avoid tobacco, they will eventually start because everyone in Nunavut smokes!
Even if tobacco was banned by the Canadian Government, the First Nation producers who follow their own set of rules would simply see this as an opportunity to expand. There is lots of money in this dirty business, just look up Ken Hill.
Banning cigarettes at the territorial level or federal level would just produce more and more Ken Hill’s.
Tobacco use and abuse in Nunavut is a terrible thing and destroys families. While the rest of the world seems to be butting out, the opposite is true for nunavut.
There are so many men wandering around looking for cigarette butts on the ground, its disgusting.
Not only men but women too even pregnant ones amd they don’t even care if it dammages the baby!