I thank the hon. member for his question. It brings up a very important philosophical question that has been discussed at length privately.
I do not believe Parliament should legislate the behaviour of an adult population. However, we are dealing with legislation that is going to affect children more than anyone else, children who do not have the objectiveness and experience that adults have.
Also, the product that we are talking about is something that is going to affect them in a horrible, detrimental fashion, as my hon. colleague just mentioned a few moments ago. It is going to kill them. It is going to affect them in horrible ways, in diseases and in morbidity.
Smoking tobacco, a deadly product, is exempt from that because we are dealing with children, as I said before, who cannot make necessarily an objective decision for themselves. The cost is also another issue. We lose revenues by bringing the tobacco costs down. However, on the other hand, the cost to society globally is also very much increased in terms of health costs, fires and loss to gross domestic product.
When people take up cigarette smoking it is not something that only affects them individually. The consequences of their behaviour is something that is borne out by all of us collectively as a society. As a result of that I do think we have a say in the matter as a society and as a House.