The manager of a gas station in Weyburn describes the change in the law governing display of tobacco products as a nuisance, but he complied anyway, as soon as he heard about the Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday.

The Saskatchewan Tobacco Control act requiring tobacco products to be hidden where accessible to minors was upheld by Canada's Supreme Court in a surprisingly quick decision on Weedless Wednesday.

"There's no option but to go along with it," said. Rick Johnson from Fas Gas. "I had the tobacco covered up with a curtain before and I kept the curtain, so it's covered up again now."

Johnson said some companies spent quite a bit of money to hide the tobacco products away and the ruling will hurt some businesses that rely heavily on tobacco income.

Buzz Bent of Bent's Smoke Shop said officials checked his store the morning after the decision came down but he already had curtains up again to cover his tobacco products. He says he'll probably need to have more permanent cabinets built now.

"What I want to know is why the government doesn't pay for the renovations when it's the one making all the money on tobacco," he said.

"We collect the taxes all year and we do the policing on minors and our insurance rates are always going up, so why should we have to pay for this too?"

Bent said his business also will lose money paid by tobacco companies to display the products.

The decision was rendered only 90 minutes after arguments were made in the highest court in Canada. The ruling said Saskatchewan has the constitutional right to require tobacco to be covered.

The Saskatchewan government first implemented the Tobacco Control Act in 2002. The law was challenged for apparently conflicting with federal law that allows the products to be displayed.

The Supreme Court ruling quashes an earlier ruling by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal that allowed displays to be open. The curtains came down after that ruling and have remained down for about a year.

A spokesman for the Canadian Cancer Society, one of four organizations to intervene in the case to support Saskatchewan's legislation, said the organization is thrilled with the quick, decisive result.

Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, said the decision shuts down a powerful form of tobacco advertising to which many children and youth are exposed.

The society says in 2003, tobacco manufacturers in Canada paid stores $88 million to give tobacco products prominence.

Saskatchewan Health Minister John Nilson said the purpose of the tobacco display provisions is to denormalize tobacco use so that young people do not grow up viewing smoking as a normal or accepted activity.

Businesses defying the law can receive a $250 ticket or a maximum of $3,000 fine, for a first offence, if they challenge the law in court. The provincial health department said no charges were laid before the act was appealed.