In his book, Ecrasons la cigarette pas les fumeurs (Crush cigarettes, not smokers), Dr. Jean-Jacques Bourque asserts that many smokers are not able to quit because they suffer from depression without knowing it.

The current anti-smoking climate is putting too much pressure on those who can't kick the habit while keeping from them the psychological and health benefits of smoking, charges a Quebec doctor and psychiatrist in a controversial new book that has anti-smoking groups fuming. He is not encouraging people to smoke but rather calls for more tolerance on the part of non-smokers. Bourque takes aim at what he describes as propaganda from Health Canada and anti-smoking activists. He says they have resorted to fear to convince smokers to quit and overblown the effects of second-hand smoke. This comes a week after a group of University of British Columbia researchers called on governments to review their anti-smoking policies. The academics argue that years of anti-smoking laws and campaigns have amounted to a public shaming of smokers, thus making it harder for them to quit. (pi)