A pack of du Maurier - $14. A loose du Maurier - $1.50.

Getting caught smoking one in a public place could cost you $10,000. That is if the Government has its way in the Senate tomorrow, when Health Minister Jerry Narace is expected to present the Tobacco Control Bill 2008.

The bill is aimed at protecting persons from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in all public places.

Apart from office buildings, educational and health institutions, the bill also includes public transportation terminals, bars, clubs and pool halls as banned areas.

And anyone who smokes in these places once the bill becomes law is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $10,000. The bill requires a three-fifths majority to be passed in the Senate.

In response to the bill, managing director of the West Indian Tobacco Company, Jean-Pierre du Coudray, said his company respected the Government’s role in bringing legislation to reduce the negative impact of tobacco on public health.

’We support regulation that balances the interests of smokers and non-smokers and we have embarked on an accommodation programme which limits non-smokers’ involuntary exposure to ETS (environmental tobacco smoke) while allowing adult consumers to smoke in a comfortable environment,’ du Coudray said in a press release over the weekend.

However, when interviewed yesterday, both smokers and non-smokers alike believed that the bill was too harsh.

Kareem Gomez, a non-smoker, said, ’I think it is really kind of harsh, even though I don’t advocate smoking. I believe there should have been a gradual progression, but there is no doubt that some law is needed because second hand smoke is very dangerous.’

John Jameson, a smoker for the past ten years, said, ’I understand not smoking in the office and schools, but a bar, that is real wickedness, it just not right. They treating smokers like how lepers were treated in the past.’