September 28 - SINGING A DIFFERENT TUNE - The BBC again embarrasses itself with a story reporting yet another anti-tobacco claim.  Headlined, "Passive smoking causes asthma", the BBC's slack jawed credulousness gives new meaning to journalistic laziness.  Forget all the numbers thrown about by anti-tobacco operatives who have NOT proved that passive smoke causes asthma.  All one needs to know is that asthma rates, in both children and adults have risen while smoking has diminished.  Smoking rates down, asthma rates up.  If asthma is indeed up then smoking, passive or otherwise, has nothing to do with it.

The lead researcher, Maritta Jaakola, does rate a thorough investigation.  Don't hold your breath waiting for the BBC to throw her some hardball questions but Martha Perske, a nationally known expert on secondhand smoke studies, has an excellent question that needs an answer.

Maritta Jaakkola, who presented her findings at the 11th European Congress on Lung Disease and Respiratory Medicine in Berlin this week, said: ‘Our results demonstrate conclusively that passive smoking plays a role in the development of adult asthma.’” Excuse my raised eyebrows, but I find it most interesting that this “conclusive evidence” comes from Maritta Jaakkola, of all people. In 1998 I attended an Occupational Safety and Health Administration-Environmental Tobacco Smoke workshop where Jaakkola was one of the panel members.  At that time, they (the panel members) lamented that studies showed no real evidence that secondhand smoke played a role in the development of adult asthma.  And in fact, Jaakkola was a co-author of a published paper giving results of the OSHA-ETS workshop, acknowledging the lack of evidence. (“Summary: Workshop on Health Risks Attributable to ETS exposure in the Workplace,” Jaakkola and Samet, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 107, Supplement 6, December 1999). Ah, but “Now a team of scientists, led by Maritta Jaakkola, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, has produced the first hard evidence to prove that passive smoking does play a role in the development of adult asthma.” Does anyone else smell a skunk?

Not to slander the skunk, but yes, Jaakkola's astonishing about face does stink to high heaven, almost as much as the toady BBC's craven abdication of journalism. By the way, Jaakkola's Finnish study of 718 people contradicts the results of another recent study, this time from Sweden, involving "6909 young and middle-aged adults (16-49 years) and their 4472 children (3-15 years)": "The prevalence of allergic asthma and allergic rhino-conjunctivitis decreased, in a dose-response manner (P = 0.03 and P = 0.004, respectively), with increasing exposure to tobacco smoke". 

What "conclusive evidence?!" In the pharmaceutical money-addicted minds of prostituted antitobacco, perhaps. The only conclusive evidence is, once again, the desperate effort of the antismoking cons and their media servants to prove what cannot be proven, replacing with volume what they cannot possibly do with quality, and attempting to create the perception that there is "overwhelming evidence" when there is none. The antismokers who want to frighten parents and employers with scary stories about future lawsuits don't want you to know about the Swedish research -- in fact, their media servants have been awfully quiet about it. Meanwhile, the fictitious "mountain of evidence" recedes into the distance, and real researchers - even if they'd love to see the antismokers vindicated - know that it's time to go back to the drawing board (or maybe throw in the towel). For more information on the passive smoke scam, click here. For more information on smoking and asthma, click here.

September 28 - MOVING UP ON THE GRAVY TRAIN - Here we go!  William Novelli is pumping the grease again . . .

Having presided over a 40 percent-plus boost in youth smoking during the 1990's while running the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Novelli is now at American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) pumping new taxes on the little critters to pay for grandma's health care. 

As he said in his 1996 Profile interview by the RWJ Foundation, social change is like "selling soda pop and soap." 

As Norman Kjono said in "Puff The Magic Camel," now grandma can look the other way while little Johnnie tokes a butt, so she can get her health insurance.

September 28 - THEY CAN'T KEEP THEIR STORIES STRAIGHT - The Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) earlier this week cranked up the propaganda on secondhand smoke in an attempt to enact various smoking bans.  It was the usual passel of lies and innuendo and, as is happening more frequently these days, filled with "facts" that contradict "facts" manufactured by competing factions of the anti-tobacco racket.

Secondhand smoke expert Martha Perske picks one piece of garbage from MPAAT's press release and wonders whether the purveyors of junk ever read each others communiqués:

So typical of the antis, they can't get their stories straight and here's a perfect example.

In their zeal to ban smoking, the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco claims that “research shows that if a nonsmoker spends as little as two hours in a room where someone is smoking, the nonsmoker inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes.”

Oh but wait a minute. This flies in the face of a “new study” conducted by Maurice Mulcahy, an environmental health officer in Ireland. Based on actual samples of pub workers’ saliva to see how much smoke they were exposed to, Mulcahy found that during an average seven-hour shift, employees inhaled only the equivalent of a half of a cigarette. (“Barstaff in health risk from smoking in pubs,” published in The Publican [UK], 9-21-01)

Not exactly the “four cigarettes” as claimed by the Minnesota coalition.

September 28 - PDA CHARGES MERCK; REGULATORS ALLEGE MERCK MISLED DOCTORS ON CARDIOVASCULAR SAFETY OF VOXX - More rocks are being turned over on the medical ethics front, and what's underneath isn't pleasant. This time, U.S. federal regulators are alleging that pharma giant Merk misled doctors regarding the safety of a painkiller and made unsubstantiated claims about the drug's relative safety when compared to other products. "In a warning letter sent Sept. 17 and released publicly late Friday, the Food and Drug Administration ordered the company to stop using some promotional materials and to send a letter to healthcare providers to correct any false impressions." In medicine, truth had better trump marketing every time, or we won't be able to have a reasonable degree of trust in what our doctors prescribe, as it is the case for smoking "cessation" drugs.

September 28 - MEN "ONE PHONE CALL" FROM TOTAL DESTRUCTION - Canadian, eh? Welcome to the new Police State - kinder and gentler than those bully-boys south of the border (we don't have the death penalty) but armed with a sting as powerful as …well, as powerful as our pathetic Constitution is weak. Soon, in Ontario, you'll be able to strip the guy you're dating of all the property he owns just by picking up the phone and claiming he abused you. Just wrinkle your pretty nose, bury your conscience and do it. Opportunities like that don't come along every day. It's a con artist's dream. And the public? Most Canadians don't agree with the gender feminists' conception of human affairs, in which men are evil and powerful by nature while women are weak wet towels - by nature. (And they call this feminisms!!?) But - as so many Canadians are so fond of saying so often, "what can you do, eh?" "While politicians tinker with this new legal weapon, the public attitude seems to be to keep one's head down", according to this account from the Ottawa Citizen. Oh well, if just one abused woman can be saved by significantly contributing to the erosion of the foundations of a principled justice system, isn't it worth it? (echoes of the shop-worn 'if just one child can be saved from the predations of the evil tobacco industry...'). By the way, the commentary you're reading right now was written by a woman. A Canadian one. An angry one, sickened at the future we are concocting for our children of both sexes.

September 27 - SMOKERS ARE HEROES - Recently, and right after the NYC Twin Tower disaster, the New York Times published an article by columnist Thomas L. Friedman ("Smoking or Non-Smoking?"), that associated smokers with terrorists. The revolting article was written as hundreds of smokers involved in the rescue effort were risking their lives to save those who were still buried in the rubbles. Back-stabbing antitobacco has no morality and no honor - a well-established fact that does not surprise those who are fighting the uphill battle to free the world from that social cancer. What is disgusting and unprofessional, however, is that the New York Times, while giving ample space to its columnist to spread his unrelenting, quasi-racial hate speech against 60 millions of respectable American citizens, did not see fit to publish even one of the tens of letters from irate citizens sent to NYT within 24 hours from the publication of its article. We publish one of those letters, written by Audrey Silk of C.L.A.S.H., a New York group affiliate of FORCES. Audrey expresses quite well the feelings of those smokers who are still working to clean the city from the consequences of a form of hatred that is not very dissimilar from the one the NYT is promoting, and which certainly has earned an appropriate place for that paper in every washroom of the United States.

September 27 - EXPANDING THE PROGRAM - The field of tobacco control has worked to incorporate policy—and regulation as an expression of that policy—as a critical component of health promoting initiatives. When dealing with a hazardous product such as tobacco, regulation can be applied at four levels: regulation of the product, of the industry, of community and work settings, and of the individual.

There it is, spelled out for all to see.  The way to deal with tobacco is to regulate the individual.  To those who refuse to see in anti-tobacco the seeds of a new totalitarian movement, read carefully this article.  The authors take inspiration in what they call the tobacco control movement and itch to expand the scope from tobacco to everything that can be connected to their definition of health.  Tobacco was just the beginning.

Although written in the irritating and jargon-ridden style popular with pseudo-intellectuals of all stripes, this dissertation positing the apotheosis of Public Health is a must read for those wishing to gain some insight into the minds of people who seek complete control over their fellows.  There is no individualism in their view of the world.  Cultural aspects they find distasteful are to be obliterated.  Decrees from on high will impose conformity upon all levels of society.  The body is the state's property and as a tax-paying tool the individual must subordinate his aspirations to the collective.

As soulless and depressing as this document is, it's more depressing that the people composing it, and the organizations for which they toil tirelessly, are operating in the open without any opposition from our elected representatives, mainline civil liberties organizations or the media.  Under the banner of Public Health anything goes, including the eradication of freedom.

September 25 - JOE MCCARTHY REDUX - "Are you now or have you even been a member of the Communist Party?"  This question was Senator Joseph McCarthy's trademark nearly 50 years ago during the Red Scare and communist witch hunt.  With little proof, but lots of backing from the media, McCarthy ruined many people during a period marked by hysteria over a supposed menace to America.

It's truly ironic that Wisconsin, where Joseph McCarthy entered the political scene, is using the same tactics to exterminate smoking.  The question now, posed to school children, is "Do live with a smoker?"

Leaving aside the deplorable waste of school time spent on a social engineering project, the ferreting out of personal information is an assault on personal liberty far worse than anything old Joe McCarthy attempted.  Joe McCarthy wasn't interested in turning children against their parents and relatives but that is the message imparted by the goons who do anti-tobacco's bidding while on the public payroll.

It's old news that American public schools are atrocious.  Anti-tobacco isn't the only entity that is responsible but parents could do worse by demanding that anti-tobacco keep its hands off their children. 

September 25 - A PASSEL OF LIES Not all that long ago people tended to believe what the government disseminated on television in the form of public service announcements.  That day is over and anti-tobacco bears most of the blame for the cynicism that now greats the bits of propaganda dribbling over the airways.  The Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) cranked out a real zinger of a press release this week that exemplifies the innate dishonesty of the anti-tobacco enterprise.  Using a plethora of statistics and unverified numbers, the press release is a compendium of secondhand smoke falsehoods.  Interestingly, MPAAT does not use the Environmental Protection Agency's secondhand smoke report, the study upon which all smoking bans are based.  Nor does it use Stanton Glantz' preposterous figure of 53,000 done in by passive smoke.  Apparently MPAAT knows it can no longer get away with distributing these two falsehoods.

Archie Anderson, President of FORCES - Minnesota has done some digging into MPAAT and puts its press release into perspective:

MPAAT always releases their propaganda via PR newswire that is mostly rejected by the main stream media.  Let me tell you about the doctor of propaganda Richard Hurt, the Stanton Glantz of Mayo Clinic, he operates a nicotine dependency center out of the once respected medical center in Rochester Minnesota, As chairman of MPAAT their home page cites Mayo Clinic as the source of the fallacious 53,000 deaths of non smokers by second hand smoke. This so called doctor used a National Cancer Institute grant to pocket 72,600,00 for a study of 200 deceased veterans. Without exhumation of bodies this witchdoctor wrote in the Journal of American Medical Association that all the veterans died from smoking. The doctor refused to turn over a copy of his grant application for two years until a United States Senator encouraged him to follow the law.

MPAAT operates on a $202-million extortion of Tobacco money conjured at a sidebar with a judge. A derelict attorney general and a state legislature allowed for the first time in history the collection of litigated funds with the use of state and federal offices for the funds specifically to be used by un-elected, non-profit and politically active citizens WITHOUT LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT. State legislators that have questioned the sweetheart deal are told to sit down and shut up or pay a fine of $12,000. One of MPAAT's board members is Randy Johnson also a Hennepin county commissioner that forged the big idea that smokers must stay 25 feet away from the doors of the Hennepin County Government center in liberal Minneapolis the birthplace of left handed politics.

Dr A. Stuart Hanson is another gem who testified before a state committee that he or one of his comrades found cotinine in new born babies hair and that the medical costs per pack of cigarettes smoked is two, three or maybe four dollars, The pediatric offices at his Park Nicollet clinic displayed baby bottles filled with cigarette butts and water to "scare the moms". Hanson freaked out when I applied for grant contract copies under the freedom of information act for a $465,000 grant from NCI to Park Nicollet clinics, he told me he had to hire a bunch of attorneys.  He must have been guilty of something but I am sure the grant was sanitized by the attorneys.

Well I sure hate to keep harping on these despots but still hope that the judges allow sunlight on this issue. Three days after the deal was made by MPAAT and company the records were destroyed by the Minnesota Attorney General Humphrey and General Counsel Miller Robbins Kaplan Cerisi. In the interim, a local publication "CITY PAGES" has sued for the records to be made public.

September 25 - WHEN SUN WORSHIP TURNS TO ILLNESS "Medical experts fear thousands of Australians could be suffering from a disorder where their self esteem depends on their suntan." ..."Someone who has this problem might not think they have a problem at all, as everything can be solved with a bit more sun." Do you know someone who dwells too much on the attractiveness of his or her body? Does this take the form of a keen desire for a sun tan - even though the individual knows damn well that excessive exposure to UV rays could be dangerous? Don't just assume, as they would have in the Dark Ages, that your friend is shallow and vain. You could be looking at an undiagnosed case of what Australian medical experts are coming to recognize as the probably soon-to-be official mental illness of "tanorexia". Those bronzed buttocks and pectorals could be an unrecognized cry for help from a very, very, sick mind!... See how neatly they take care of dissent? If you disagree, you are a sick, addicted mind --  and in need of their therapies! Still believe the sick minds of the "medical" experts of "modern" publish health?

September 25 - Antismoking miracles FREE CONSCIENCE MIRACLE AT MALDIVES PRISON: READ ALL ABOUT IT! - All 200 inmates at prison stop smoking cold after health warning! And promise to campaign against evil weed for rest of lives! Victorious prison doc claims "nothing short of a miracle"! No prisoners interviewed or quoted in this report, but imagine the moving testimony they would have given if they had been! ...Antismokers really perceive the world in their own image.

September 25 - IS OBESITY A DISABILITY - Fat people have a major disadvantage when it comes to traveling. If they can't fit into the standard airline seat, they're obliged to pay a lot more for their flight. In Canada, a court challenge by an overweight lawyer could change this if it is determined that obesity is an official disability. Meanwhile, as we have documented, the bureaucrats of the health Gestapo refine plans for taxing people by the pound to punish them for physical attributes or to help "reimburse" that handy entity known as "society" for the "costs" imposed on "all of us".

Are the fat victims, villains or both?

People who figure they are likely to spend a lifetime being overweight had better think carefully about their political position on what should be a private matter. There are two basic futures to choose from: 

1. You can be categorized as an irresponsible victim-villain in need of both therapy and public discipline. Choose this option and you might eventually get a break on airfares if enough people whine to the government and launch lawsuits. The downside: eventual mandatory electronic monitoring of your refrigerator by the physicians of your company's HMO. Don't laugh too loud.

2. Insist on being a free individual who refuses to step on the scales for the health nazis for pain OR gain. 

You decide.

September 25 - WASTED OPPORTUNITY, SQUANDERED RESOURCES - Anti-tobacco claims that smoking can cause lung cancer and estimates that 10 percent of smokers will come down with the disease.  So what exactly have the billions spent on the tobacco jihad contributed to the cure or alleviation of lung cancer?  Pretty much nothing according to the Coalition of Lung Patients Organizations.

"Many people see lung cancer as a self-inflicted disease, and may feel less inclined to support and care for its victims than perhaps they do for other cancer sufferers,'' says Dr. Jesme Baird.  He adds that smoking "is by no means the only cause of lung cancer: environmental, dietary and genetic factors have all been identified as increasing the risk of the disease. This deadly disease can strike anyone.''

What Dr. Baird doesn't say is that anti-tobacco organizations such as the American Lung Association, as well as research centers such as the University of California, receive hundreds of millions in government grants and have produced nothing to combat lung cancer.  The grants have produced studies that claim smoking causes wrinkles, baldness, juvenile delinquency, impotence, bad teeth, corrupt politics and cleft palates.  The grants have been used to slander a huge segment of the population, trample property rights, ruin businesses, produce lousy TV and radio advertisements and corrupt the judicial system.  What the billions haven't done is increase medical knowledge of what does cause cancer and what can be done to treat it.

Dr. Baird's organization may be one more special interest group but his lament that nothing is being done to truly fight lung cancer is legitimate.  Tax payers should also ask the same questions.

September 24 - PHARMACEUTICAL-FUNDED PUPPETS TRASH THE JOY OF SMOKING IN WOMEN'S MAGAZINES - 

The ACHS, a recipient of antitobacco funds of pharmaceutical nature, attacks women magazines because they do not "help" enough to spread the scientific misrepresentations and the outright lies against the joys of smoking and its unproven effects on health.

You've come a long way, baby... don't go back!!

Unfortunately for Jeff Stier and his gang, if one really digs into the evidence, one discovers that "the No. 1 preventable cause of death" is virtually all "tobacco-attributed" statistical trash from junk science used by antitobacco - and very little is left that can prove tobacco as a cause of death anymore than coffee. It is a well-known fact that the pharmaceutical industry uses antitobacco advocates as marketing tools for its dangerous (for real - no statistical attributions) smoking cessation drugs.

September 24 - HATE - The teens learned a few key strategies aimed at driving the anti-smoking message home, including two that capitalize on kids' fascination with all things gross and disgusting.  One was Mr. Gross Mouth, a model of a mouth like those usually found in a dentist's office.  But Mr. Gross Mouth has yellow-brown teeth, missing teeth, and hideous, pus-filled mouth sores -- all meant to simulate some effects of smoking and tobacco chewing, such as gum disease and cancer of the gums, palate and tongue.  For added effect, simulated brown tobacco juice can be added to make Mr. Gross Mouth spit.

The ruins of the World Trade Center are still smoldering, the nation is in morning and anti-tobacco is conducting a hate rally in North Carolina.  After a decade of failed anti-tobacco education which saw youth smoking rates skyrocket, the operatives changed tactics and recruited the dullest of high school students to pretend that the new anti-smoking campaigns are conducted by young people themselves.  The trend began in Florida and moved to the national stage with the incomprehensible "Truth" campaign run by the Legacy Foundation.

The style of the new campaign is certainly juvenile but the people who actually compose the messages are adults who have not progressed beyond the 1960's anti-capitalism and anti-American activism rampant during late night frat house bull sessions.  Their anti-smoking messages include outright malice towards those who chose to smoke.  The cretins who think Mr. Gross Mouth is an appropriate gimmick are endorsing hatred towards parents, siblings, and all adults who smoke.

September 24 - BIDIS ARE A HELL OF A GOOD IDEA - Bidis, the chocolate, mandarin or strawberry-flavored, tiny and tasty Indian cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular among the youth. Why? They are inexpensive, and very, very cool - especially because they get the antitobacco bigots really, really mad - since the bigots hardly get to grab any money from the sales of imported bidis - quite differently than the American-produced cigs. The methods used to fight this new, terrific trend among the youth is nothing but the same: spit out the usual cheap rhetoric and lies about smoking; how creative! "But they're also just as deadly as regular cigarettes, health experts say... " pontificates the HealthScoutNews article. Wow! Since those "experts" have not been able to conclusively prove that cigarette in general are more "deadly" than pop soda in the last 50 years, then, this one is down… Next: "In India, bidis are known as the 'poor man's cigarettes' because they cost much less than American cigarettes. In the United States, they are more of a niche product for kids trying to be cool." Savings and coolness: two very good reasons to smoke'em right in the face of the bigots, don't you think?… "Once kids start smoking, it can be hard for them to quit." Yes, that one may be true, for a change; usually, when something gives you satisfaction and gratification, it is harder to quit because you enjoy it - ask any chocolate "addict" (don't worry about the "A" word, either: we are all addicts nowadays - we are living!). And lastly, the tail of this piece of propaganda trash is, of course, a "credibility" link to an institution that has distinguished itself for the brutality of its fascist attitudes and methods, and its compulsion to false information on smoking: Health Canada!… Draw your own conclusions, while you are lighting up the next bidi! While you are enjoying, you may want to educate yourself on the real Evidence on smoking... what you think you know about tobacco may surprise you.

September 24 - GREED REMAINS ETERNAL - "Enedina Garcia, a 16-year-old Lansing Eastern student, stopped smoking two years ago.  "I just don't see a very strong message telling me not to smoke,'' she said. "We don't hear too much about it.''

Do you not watch television, Enedina?  Do you not go to school?  Enedina Garcia is proof that "dullard" is an appropriate adjective for little anti-tobacco robots.  It is to be hoped that Michigan politicians will recognize how deceptive is the full bore attempt to grab scarce dollars to conduct ineffective public health campaigns.  Michigan is the current focus but the road show of anti-tobacco lawyers, public health parasites and addled youth will be seen in state capitols from coast to coast in a strident chorus of greed.

The country changed significantly after the attacks on New York City and Washington.  The country was jolted out of a self-imposed lethargy to the realization that there are actual crises rather than politically generated non-crises such as tobacco.  As public money is directed to activities that are important to national survival, the spigot will be turned off for anti-tobacco.  That's a given.  It's too bad anti-tobacco doesn't have the decency or patriotism to shut up.

September 21 - IOWA BAN CAN'T GET OFF THE GROUND - A proposal to ban smoking an all Boone, Iowa restaurants failed when no one on the city council supported the council member who proposed the ban.  Three times, in fact, did the mayor ask for a second to bring the matter up for discussion.  The motion then died and the council moved on to legitimate city business.

Funny how these smoking bans are NEVER proposed by the citizens.  Without the paid anti-tobacco operatives to do the pharmaceutical company bidding there wouldn't be any smoking bans in this country.  It's funny also how business owners continue to allow people who can't run a business, don't produce a product anyone wants and couldn't even get a job in the real world to make them jump through hoops at city halls across the nation.  The smoking ban cancer will not be halted until the people who do have real jobs hire lawyers to go after the operatives who want to ruin other people's lives.

September 21 - PHARMA BUYS A CONSCIENCE - "Doctors fear drug companies like bookies fear the mob," one brave psychiatrist, who had the guts to be named, is quoted as saying in this eye-opening piece on how corporations control "the experts" that have such an undue influence over our increasingly complex and regulated lives.

In the world of medicine and academia, it is usually unseemly to break the silence about the unholy matrimony between industry and "independent" professionals that is leading to junk science, suppressed speech and bought "opinion leaders" in medicine and public health policy. Here a bioethicist opens up to describe some of the real dirt that is swept under the carpet by people who are afraid to lose their jobs, their funding and their reputations - all is at stake for those who try to take an ethical stand against this white-coated, white collar form of corruption that normally "dares not speak its name". Time for others to speak out as well, so that this ball keeps rolling until it becomes too big and embarrassing to ignore. How 'bout some Congressional hearings? 

September 21 - COUNCIL TO CONSIDER SMOKING BAN AT PARKS - Here we go again. It doesn't matter that secondhand smoke poses no danger to anyone. Apparently operating on the theory that it is now a more important source of air pollution than Los Angeles smog, LA city council is considering a ban in all parks "prevent the harm secondhand smoke poses to park visitors each year." It would be laughable if it weren't true. In California, they're dreaming of the Intolerant Society - and don't expect it to stop here.

September 21 - SECONDHAND SMOKE CAUSES BAD DIETARY HABITS - Just when you think anti-tobacco can't get any zanier, or more creative in wasting money, comes a study that is a mouth dropper.  According to a bunch of busy drones toiling in the fertile fields of anti-tobacco research, nonsmoking husbands and wives, unfortunate enough to be married to smokers, have terrible eating habits when compared to couples living a blissful smoke-free existence.

Nonsmoking husbands with smoking wives get the worst of the deal as the slatternly hussies serve up high fat, high cholesterol food.  The horrifying fare is washed down with gallons of liquor, coffee and soft drinks.  No report on those couples who both smoke since obviously they are all dead.

September 20 - JOY OF TOBACCO - "This is not the time to venture quitting," said Stritzel, a sales engineer from Glendale. He and two others puffed on cigarettes outside their Broad Street offices yesterday, a scene repeated across the Wall Street area on the day the markets reopened.

There really is no reason to "venture quitting" smoking unless one really wants to quit.  Most of the those who venture down the quitting path do so because of the guilt that is laid upon them by the incessant barrage of anti-smoker propaganda.  Last week's events in New York City thrust the tobacco issue where it belongs, way, way down on the scale of importance.

The Native Americans who gave tobacco to the world didn't smoke because of Joe Camel ads.  The pharmacological benefits of tobacco became known soon after the Europeans shared the New World's marvelous gift with their countrymen.  A cigarette perks you up and sharpens focus without altering perceptions.  It can also simultaneously calm you down, again without altering perceptions.  Tobacco provides oral and sensual pleasures and is the perfect ice breaker among convivial strangers.  Truly a joyful herb.

It's no secret that pharmaceutical companies want to muscle the tobacco industry out of the nicotine market so that there will be no competition between their nicotine products and the traditional tobacco products which are enjoyed by millions.  To that end Big Drugs funds research into the properties of nicotine.

Two purposes are served by a recent study that suggests cigarettes may function like antidepressant drugs.  Entwined throughout the regurgitated press release are snide insinuations that smokers are depressed which renders them unreceptive to cessation sermons.  The main thrust of the story, however, cannot be ignored.  Cigarettes ward off depression.  Lest anyone draw the conclusion that cigarettes may well benefit mental health, the researchers are quick to disclose the true purpose for their study:

[He] also emphasized that even if cigarette smoking did have some antidepressive effect, he still would not recommend its use, but hopes this research could aid in designing better smoking cessation treatments for depressed patients.

"Certainly, this is no reason to take up a smoking career,'' he said. ``There are so many bad things about smoking you can't justify the use of it.''

September 20 - PROTECTING BIG TOBACCO - Colorado's attorney general filed suit against several small cigarette manufacturers for muscling into Big Tobacco's state-sanctioned monopoly.  Under laws enacted by all states, participating in the Tobacco Settlement, small tobacco companies, who were not a part of the agreement, must pay into an escrow account.  If the small manufacturer can charge $1 less per pack than Big Tobacco charges, that $1 ends up in the escrow account.  If the small manufacturer charges the same fixed price as Big Tobacco, nothing goes into the escrow account.  This type of law, surely an anti-trust violation, ensures that Big Tobacco's market share remains static and that the states grab the maximum spoils from smokers.

Colorado's monopolistic action is similar to actions taking place throughout the country.  Several cases brought by small tobacco companies seeking to end these anti-trust provisions are also wending their way through the court system.

September 20 - PERPETUAL ZYBAN - The news mills were hit by a story from UPI that uncritically reports a study that gives glowing reviews to the efficacy of Zyban as a smoking cessation drug.  Zyban works, according to the researchers at the Mayo Clinic.  Best of all, the researchers provide a rationale to keep taking Zyban even after the user has quit smoking.

According to them, relapses won't occur if the drug user remains on Zyban for up to a year after quitting smoking.  As an added plus, Zyban keeps the weight off, a problem known to occur when quitting smoking.  Sounds like a pretty good package of benefits unless one takes into consideration the possibility that Zyban may kill or injure you.

Although the UPI reporter seems unaware that Zyban is the focus of investigations in several countries regarding alleged injuries or death, she gets a gold star for noting that the pro-Zyban study was funded by Glaxo Wellcome, the manufacturer of Zyban.

September 19 - THUMBS DOWN TO AN INSANE PROPOSAL -One thing is certain, it would represent a level of repression few other legislatures have considered and one that many Americans, even those who abhor smoking, would regard negatively.

There are many other "levels of repression" against smokers that the editors of the Salt Lake City Tribune could also deplore, but it is encouraging they call a spade a spade and don't sugar-coat repression by calling it anti-smoking public policy.

The repression the editors don't like is a law before the Utah legislature that would ban smoking in a vehicle if a minor is present.  The cops don't like the law.  The anti-tobacco press doesn't like the law.  The civil libertarians don't like the law.  So how did it get before the legislature?

Every state and most municipalities contain at least one zealot who toils exclusively for the anti-tobacco enterprise.  Utah is no different and Carl Saunders, the vehicle smoking ban proponent, is slavish in his devotion to anti-tobacco.  Although he describes himself as anti-tax, his anti-tobacco duties trump tax reduction.  In addition to his smoking ban law, which appears headed for defeat, Saunders has a cigarette tax hike proposal in the works where the funds collected would be distributed entirely to anti-tobacco special interests.

September 19 - CRIME EPIDEMIC - "Staff Sgt. Dan Anderson said since the federal government announced it was increasing tobacco taxes last spring, police have been anticipating a rash of cigarette thefts

''Because the value of cigarettes is higher, we probably will have more smash and grab incidents,'' he said.  Anderson said it's probably time for police to contact variety store owners, telling them to protect their stock of cigarettes."

Sgt. Dan Anderson, Waterloo Region, British Columbia, is right on one point and incorrect on two others.  Of course thefts will increase when absurd taxes are imposed on a product that should cost at most $2.  Coast to coast, there is a crime wave of cigarette heists, many involving strong arm tactics resulting in death and injury.

Sgt. Anderson is wrong about the value of cigarettes.  The taxes don't increase the value but do make them valuable to criminals, including the anti-tobacco enterprise.  Tobacco heists are the result.  Finally Sgt. Anderson is wasting police time contacting variety store owners urging them to protect their stock.  The robbers will grab the cigarettes as long high taxes make it worth their while.  Sgt. Anderson needs to urge the greedy  and cowed politicians to lower the taxes to a reasonable rate.  Get that done, Sgt. Anderson, and the crime wave is over.

September 19 - SOPHISTICATED TECHNIQUES - "Cigarette thefts are something police usually associate with juvenile crime. Cutting torches are not."

Don't blame the police for erroneously assuming that cigarette theft is a childish pastime.  Anti-tobacco's psychotic focus on the trappings of cigarette sales, advertising, display counters, promotions, has fooled the populace into thinking that only minors would have an impetus to steal cigarettes.  In locality after locality, anti-tobacco has passed laws to get the cigarettes off the counters and into "child proof" containers pushing the lie that children couldn't keep their hands off cigarettes displayed on the counter.

Well, the kids are stealing the smokes.  The real criminals are now involved and for that dangerous situation, give thanks to anti-tobacco.

September 19 - FLIPPING OFF THE NANNIES - "SCANDAL comes second nature to Asia Argento.  The glamorous daughter of Italian horror auteur Dario Argento recently made her directorial debut with the arty porn film "Scarlet Diva" and is raising more eyebrows with a photo spread in Index magazine. A very pregnant Argento, who is shown smoking a cigarette nude in a bathtub, assures The Post's V.A. Musetto that Anna Lou was born healthy on July 20, and describes her as "a very healthy pink rose from outer space.", New York Post, 9/18/01

Good For Asia Argento.  A well known film maker she may not be but she gets points for picking the scabs of Big Nanny.  She is far too young to remember but it really wasn't all that long ago that smoking while pregnant wasn't a big deal.  During the baby boom years many pregnant women smoked if they felt like doing so.  For some reason it wasn't until anti-tobacco started collecting the big bucks that smoking while pregnant became an issue.

September 18 - SMOKERS TALK BACK TO THE NEW YORK TIMES - The outrageous Thomas Friedman column in the New York Times that associated smoking sections with terrorist havens has really hit a nerve. We've been made aware of a volley of outraged letters that have been sent to the Times over the column - but at least in the online edition, only one has been published in reference to that column and it didn't refer to the odious metaphor. It's not in bad taste to draw attention to this issue at a time of crisis. It's essential, instead, to shout out loud, "we insist - especially now - that freedom and tolerance are preserved." A pathological preoccupation with health and safety - at the cost of freedom and responsibility - is the enemy from within. External enemies can create a powerful temptation to create a virtual police state as a way of trying to feel permanently safe, but if the values of a free society are at stake in the current crisis, that temptation must be guarded against. The enemy within - the one which tries to depict smokers, the overweight, etc. as "social costs" and thus pariahs, which argues for the mass-tranquilization of children in classrooms just for the sake of expedience -- is equally as destructive of the values of a free society, but is more subtle and long-acting. That enemy, folks, is ourselves.

September 18 - FOLLOW THE MONEY ON VACCINES - An eye-opening commentary on serious conflict-of-interest problems with respect to Big Pharma and American public health regulators. Seems the governor of Illinois recently vetoed a bill that "would have provided that a person is ineligible to serve on the Illinois Immunization Advisory Committee if the person or his spouse is an officer, employee, or agent of, or has any ownership or other financial interest in a pharmaceutical company that manufactures vaccines." Why the veto for a measure obviously necessary to preserve the integrity of policy-making? Incredibly, it was argued that there wouldn't be enough experts left to advise on the committee after the passage of such a bill! Notice how the word "corruption" has in recent years been replaced by the cleaner and more cheerful-sounding "public-private partnership" to describe what are essentially the same practices? Once again, let's state the obvious - private enterprise is good when it's private. And public institutions can't serve the public in a democracy if they are acting as marketing agents for businesses. Time for voters, concerned parents and other unfashionable citizens to wake up.

September 18 - WHY STOP SMOKING? - Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health issued guidelines for people to follow if they wish to avoid getting adult diabetes.  The good news from the researchers is that 90 percent of diabetes is preventable and only requires that people moderate their behavior and adopt a healthier lifestyle.  

The greatest risk for contracting diabetes is being overweight.  The researchers found that even being slightly overweight triples the chance of getting the disease.  Those who exercise seven or more hours a week are half as likely to succumb to diabetes as those who exercise less than half an hour weekly.

In the news report smoking is not mentioned at all except in the first paragraph:

Nine out of 10 cases of adult diabetes could be prevented if people exercised more, ate healthier food, stopped smoking and adopted other healthy behavior...

Adult diabetes is caused by diet and more importantly by being overweight yet the researchers felt they must, almost by rote, exhort people to stop smoking.  No reason to do so except that anti-tobacco research is grabbing all the grants so the smart researcher now is obliged to insert anti-tobacco conclusions into every health subject.  The fit smoker is no more at risk of contracting diabetes than is the fit non-smoker.  To confuse the issue with anti-tobacco nonsense borders on malpractice.

September 17 - DOCTORS SAY ZYBAN MAY BE LINKED TO DEATHS - Safety questions continue to be raised about the drug Zyban, increasingly recommended to people as a way to quit smoking. This report form Germany doesn't sound very alarming in itself, but it is just the latest in a series of alarm bells. Britain's drug regulatory body has stated that Zyban was primarily responsible for a one third increase in adverse drug reactions in the first quarter of the year, according to a June report from Reuters,  and in the same month Australian Broadcast News said 800 adverse reactions were attributed to the drug in its first seven months on the market, and it was suspected of having caused nine deaths. Click here  for more on the Zyabn controversy.

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