Freedom To Smoke

Press With Brain

The Radios of Liberty

Smoking Links

Liberty Sites: Organizations and People

Tobacco In The Developing World

November 8,  Snuffing Out Freedom,  by Jacob Sullum, "By a margin of more than two to one, Floridians voted on Tuesday to ban smoking in almost all indoor workplaces.....Manhattan restaurateur Elaine Kaufman makes the case for a less coercive solution: "We'd put a sign out front, letting people know we're a smoking establishment. And here's a grown-up idea: let people make their own decision about whether to enter. As far as the employees go, it would be up to them, too. Since not all restaurants will choose to be smoking establishments, the work force will have other options."

But Floridians do not care for options; like spoiled children, they want things their way all the time. They believe they have a right to demand "a smoke-free environment" everywhere they go, even on other people's property. In principle, this is no different from insisting on "a meat-free environment" in a steakhouse or "a music-free environment" in a noisy bar. Instead of expressing their preferences as consumers and employees in the marketplace, which would lead to a diversity of choices, smoke banners insist on total hegemony, imposing their one best way on everyone."

What a novel idea, allow people to choose.  We are consenting to a very well compensated, group of "bullies" to dictate people's choice. We are loosing our freedoms on a daily basis, in a blink of an eye, we will no longer be able to make any choices.

November 8 - Saving the Kiddies, Enslaving Adults -  By Sean Gabb – “Where should we draw the line?... The truth, I suspect, is that most health fascists are not actually worried about children. Their real concern is to stop adults from smoking. When they started their war on tobacco in the 1960s, they were openly authoritarian in their assertion of the right to act as our guardians. Since then, they have been put on the defensive by the reply that adults should have the right to do with themselves as they please. Therefore, starting in the 1980s, they began to manufacture statistics about passive smoking. This allowed them to claim that smoking was not a purely self-regarding act, and so could be regulated in public to prevent harm to others.”

November 8 - New member of the FORCES International Honour Committee – We are pleased to introduce to our international readership prof. Carlo Lottieri, a long-standing veteran in the fight for individual liberties and free market. Welcome to our international family. Click here for a profile of Carlo Lottieri, and here to access the FORCES International Honour Committee.

November 8 - Seats of higher learning are becoming seats of higher whining as repulsive do-gooders indulge their prejudices by assaulting their fellow students with irrelevant, unenforceable new laws while a tobacco business in Ventura County turns California's anti-pleasure ethos on its ear.

See INSIDE

November 8 - And the winner is...Russ Lemmon!  Toledo Blade columnist and child-like prohibitionist.

Russ sure doesn't like smokers and smoking.  In a recent column he equated the innocuous pleasures of tobacco with slavery, drunk driving and denying women their rights.  As these were banished or stigmatized, so smoking must be cast into the dustbin of history.  When Ohio's supreme court slapped Toledo's health department on the hands for imposing an illegal smoking ban, Russ held his breath and turned blue.

This Tuesday, election night, found Russ staying up long past his bed time waiting not for the results of races that determined control of the U.S. Senate nor for the results of the dramatic Coleman vs. Mondale race.  No, Russ was waiting, as a child anticipates Santa Clause, for the results of the vote in Florida to ban smoking restaurants.  War with Iraq, sinking economy, tax policies, judicial appointments, tort reform, all hanging on the results of the congressional races and Russ is enthralled with a smoking ban in Florida.

For elevating a smoking ban to a matter of international importance and for believing that stopping smoking in Florida restaurants will transform the country into a wholesome paradise, Russ Lemmon is a touching Jackass Of The Week.

November 7 - Freedom Is Always Worth Fighting For - Election day brought mixed results for smokers.  Voters turned down a cigarette tax in Missouri but imposed a huge tax on smokes in Arizona.  Michigan voters turned down an anti-tobacco scam designed to enrich "health" charities, the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies.

The biggest defeat of liberty occurred in Florida where the Tobacco Control enterprise spent millions of dollars selling a workplace smoking ban to the voters.  With only 50 percent needed to change that state's constitution, the smoking ban sailed through on a magic carpet of lies, deceptions and special interest money.  The implementation of the ban now returns to the state legislature for implementation.  Details of the ban that were never highlighted now must be dealt with by politicians who won't be inclined to implement a ban that will drive people out of business and ruin the tourist trade.

FORCES wants to acknowledge Wendy Stone, a nonsmoker and resident of Florida, who put together the opposition to the Florida smoking ban.  On her own she built an organization with a shoe-string budget.  Despite the lack of funding she got the attention of the media and educated thousands of Floridians about the secondhand smoke scam, the danger to businesses when special interests are put in charge of people's livelihoods and the tragedy of turning over personal choices to government.  Her dedication, grit, tenaciousness and moral rectitude have been an inspiration and a prod for others to stop sitting on the fence and get involved.  Wendy Stone is one classy lady and smokers everywhere are grateful for all she accomplished.

No Amendment 6 Concession

November 7 - The Risk-free, Liberty-free Brave New World -  Bad habits like drinking, smoking and overeating that were once the preserve of the rich are taking an increasing hold in developing nations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.

But in a report on one of its largest research projects to date, the Geneva-based organisation said life expectancy could be raised by up to a decade by judiciously targeted actions.

It said the top 10 killers, in order of deadliness, were: malnourishment, unsafe sex, high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol, bad water and poor sanitation, iron deficiency, smoke inhalation from indoor fires, high cholesterol and obesity.

Perceptive people can see right off the bat that the above hodge-podge consists of unhealthy environments mixed in with personal choices.  The unfortunate of the world can do little about government policies that lead to malnutrition, dirty water supplies and bad plumbing.  Smoking, drinking alcohol and overindulging are personal choices available to all in affluent societies.  One set of risks is imposed by fate, the other is a matter of choice.  The WHO cannot, or will not, distinguish between them.  For the unfortunate the WHO could provide a service, for the affluent the WHO can only dictate behavior.

Taking a stroll through the WHO's Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life is in many ways an extremely amusing experience.  The ponderousness, the self-importance of the organization shines through the borderline hysterical prognostication of a world sorely in need of a Big Mother to hold its hands and change its diapers.  Big Mother, in the guise of Gro Harlem Brundtland is mighty worried and sees unacceptable risk where normal people see better times for more people.

Referring to the success of mass immunization in eradicating diseases that decimated whole nations, Brundtland concedes that the world, some ways, is a safer place now than in the past.  Don't be encouraged, however, as she ominously notes:

In many ways the world is becoming more dangerous.  Too many of us are living dangerously -- whether we are aware of that or not.  The picture that is taking shape gives an intriguing -- and alarming -- insight into current causes of disease and death and the factors underlying them.  The WHO's research shows how the lifestyles of whole populations are changing around the world, and the impact of these changes on the health of individuals, families, communities and whole populations.

This "dangerous" world is the result of rising standards of living in nations that are climbing up the economic ladder.  The new dangers include too much food, too much booze and too much tobacco.  Gone are the days when the WHO worried about malaria, malnutrition and the ill effects of poverty.  The WHO now is concerned with the same issues that obsess the denizens of Manhattan's upper west side and the nicer sections of London, Paris, Rome and Geneva, elite people all and all with healthy financial portfolios.

To put it in context, chapter five of the WHO's opus, "Some Strategies to Reduce Risk" lists these helpful hints:

Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) targeted at all current smokers aged 20--60 years. Nicotine dependence is a critical barrier to successful smoking cessation. As a result, policy interventions to control smoking often aim to strengthen a smoker's motivation to quit (for example, increased health education, price policies and smoke-free policies) as well as reduce dependence-type barriers that stand in the way of quitting (for example, through pharmacological and behavioural treatments). 

NRT includes pharmacological aids used to help smokers in their quest to stop smoking. NRT includes transdermal patches (commonly referred to as nicotine patches), nicotine chewing gum, nicotine nasal sprays, lozenges, aerosol inhalers and some classes of antidepressants, including biuproprion.

To achieve successful and large-scale cessation rates, the introduction of NRT into a society is probably not sufficient by itself. When deciding to introduce NRT into a country's tobacco control policy, policy-makers need to ensure that health professionals (including doctors, nurses and pharmacists) have appropriate training so that they are confident and capable of providing advice and treatment to tobacco-dependent patients.

There's the real reason for the more dangerous world of the WHO.  A more dangerous world results in strategies that deliver the goods to the international pharmaceutical corporations' bottom line.  The World Health Organization should stick to solving the still rampant problem of malaria and leave the rest of us alone.

November 6 - The United States Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to Canada's attempt to sue an American firm.  This decision pretty much derails the European Union's attempt to file a similar suit against the American tobacco industry.  Are the Canadian anti-tobacco maniacs through with wasting their government's funds?  Of course not!

See INSIDE

November 6 - Victim Of Zealotry - Many are amazed and some are increasingly worried about the behavior of Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City.  He came into office as New York bid farewell to a popular mayor and after the trauma of September 11.  Looking for leadership to inspire the rebuilding of the city, Bloomberg has become bogged down on the trivial issue of smoking.  He's against it and as time passes his hatred of tobacco seems almost a mania.

Last month a story about city employees and their smoking breaks drove the mayor bonkers and he fired a well-respected city employee for the crime of smoking in public.  Although the story indicated that the smokers highlighted in the story were exceeding their smoke break allotment, subsequent evidence, uncovered by the paper that wrote the original story indicates that the terminated employee was dismissed unjustly.

The employee, Bob Swinton, has retained legal assistance so cannot speak directly about this case.  His wife, however, does want to set the record straight:

November 4 - Mainstream Opposition To Florida Smoking Ban - "Amendment 6 would ban smoking in restaurants and other indoor workplaces except "stand alone" bars and tobacco shops.

Proponents say people should be protected from secondhand smoke. However, restaurants already have smoke-free areas -- 65 percent of the seating -- and it's better to let business decisions be made by the marketplace.

We are mindful of health considerations, but it seems doubtful that anyone who eats out once a week could suffer a lethal exposure during a one-hour dinner. Smokers can eat in restaurants with smoking sections, and non-smokers can choose to sit in non-smoking areas or patronize those that are smoke-free.

If concerned non-smokers were shunning smoking restaurants, restaurant owners would be changing their policy.

In certain cases, smoking would be outlawed even inside private homes -- which would be an invasion of privacy.

We recommend voting no on 6."  (The Florida Times Union, 10/31/02)

With the exception of the Saint Petersburg Times, the vast majority of Florida's big city dailies oppose Amendment 6.

November 4 - Transatlantic Shakedown -  The European Union accused tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds in a lawsuit Wednesday of selling black-market cigarettes to drug traffickers and mobsters, helping them launder profits from their illegal activities.

RJR executives "at the highest corporate level" made it "part of their operating business plan to sell cigarettes to and through criminal organizations and to accept criminal proceeds in payments for cigarettes by secret and surreptitious means," the suit alleges.

The European Union, frantic that its greedy mitts have, so far, been barred from picking the American tobacco industry's pockets, has filed a new suit against R.J. Reynolds.  The Europeans claim that RJR colludes with cigarette smuggles to deprive the individual governments of billions of dollars in tax revenue.  Identical suits will be filed shortly against the other major cigarette manufacturers.

A couple of questions, unasked by the reports, need to be answered.  Why isn't this suit filed in Europe, the location where the collusion supposedly takes place?  Perhaps the courts there have not yet been corrupted by anti-tobacco politics and such a suit would be thrown out of court.  Why was it that the six U.S. Justice Department investigations, conducted by the previous anti-tobacco administration, failed to find any wrongdoing by the American tobacco companies?  No industry has been so examined and probed in recent years yet no criminal activity has ever been lodged against it.  The Europeans are not seeking justice, they are seeking a protection racket payment.  Their suit should be tossed out immediately.

If the European Union were really concerned about lost tax revenue from out-of-control smuggling there is a simple methods to prevent it.  Just reduce the cigarette tax to a reasonable level and there would be no reason for smugglers to waste their time on tobacco products.  Instead, at the same time the suit against RJR is being filed, France is compounding the problem:

French MPs approves higher cigarette tax hike than proposed by the government.

Parliament voted to increase the tax on tobacco products for 2003 by 20%, on top of a 15% increase already planned.  The 20% increase passed yesterday evening was higher than the 17.7% called for by the French health ministry which fears that too high a tax might encourage illegal cigarette trafficking and counterfeits.

November 4 - Protecting The Public...From A Tobacco Crazed Fireman! -  The driver had been driving erratically in a car that was not his.  After being stopped by a state trooper in Springfield Massachusetts, crack cocaine, as well as other drugs, were found in the car.  The young driver was also smoking a cigarette.  He is a city firefighter.

Springing to attention, the city terminated the firefighter's employment on the spot, but not for driving recklessly, nor for the crack cocaine found in the car.  The city of Springfield doesn't mess around with public safety.  The firefight lost his job because he was smoking a cigarette.

Smoking, an adult pleasure available to everyone else, is forbidden to the firefighters of Massachusetts.  He joins a police officer who was sacked for smoking on the job.  To its credit, the firefighter's union is challenging the termination.  Meanwhile the citizens of Massachusetts can sleep easier knowing that a tobacco smoker is off the ranks of the fire department.