My Store stops selling cigarettes

The Daily Herald writes that My Store Supermarket in The Bottom is to put up a sign reading: “Cigarettes are not sold here anymore.” The reason behind this remarkable decision is that people need to become more aware of the dangers of smoking, according to the supermarket’s owner.

My Store’s owner Cornel Johnson recently made his decision after watching a television show about smoking-related cancer. His sister Linda has been fighting cancer for years and was a smoker once. She still has to go to Colombia for check-ups. Johnson did smoke himself from the age of 16 until he was 27, and never touched a cigarette since then.

“I am very happy that my wife and two daughters do not smoke,” Johnson said. Minister Mervin Alexander of Seventh Day Adventist Church sees the destructive capabilities of smoking every day. “On one side of a cigarette box it says: ‘Smoking kills’ and on the other side it says: ‘Smokers die younger.’ Now here is a factor to take into consideration. There are people who purchase these drugs knowing the effects it has on the body and are not courageous enough  to face the determination to stop.”

Alexander seriously questions the concern and respect for human life and safety by some people. “The young do it, the old do it as well, and there are those who are planning on adopting the habit,” Alexander said about smoking. A 9-year-old once said to him: “I won’t steal when I grow older and I won’t do some of the other bad things, but I want to be a smoker.” Both Johnson and Alexander share the same goal, which is to ban cigarettes from all indoor public places.