General

Breathing a deep, banana-flavoured sigh of relief

Relax, smokers of hookah pipes. A Conservative party media spokesperson assures me that today’s promise from Stephen Harper to “prohibit flavour and additives that would appeal to children” in tobacco does NOT apply to hookah pipe tobacco.

It’s true that Harper did specifically mentioned “banana split” as one kid-pleasing flavour that would be outlawed. But apparently he did not mean fine products such as Al Amir Banana Split Hookah Tobacco, available in convenient 250-gram tubs.

Nor do the Tories intend to limit your liberty to smoke carmel apple, black cherry, pina colada, or any of the other delightful flavours available to the hookah aficionado. A party media official assured me that only flavoured cigarillos would be affected by the new regulation.

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