Jay's Smokers Rights Blog

Property Rights Newsletter

2012-01-29T20:44:00.000-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter
January 27, 2012 - Issue #648
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."
- P.J.O'Rourke

USA: See the list of all smoking bans in the United States. Country overview and details for each state. As of November 2011, 11 states have not enacted any general statewide ban on smoking in any non-government-owned spaces: Alabama, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Instead, laws in most of these states (see individual state listings below for further information) require proprietors of certain places to designate smoking and non-smoking areas and post warning signage. In Oklahoma, state law prohibits local governments from regulating smoking more strictly than the state, making it the only state without any kind of legislated smoking bans. In the other 10 states, cities and/or counties have enacted stricter smoking laws than the state, in some cases banning smoking in all enclosed workplaces. In Alabama, Indiana, and Mississippi, the state smoking law expressly allows all local governments to do so. In Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, and West Virginia, a court has ruled that certain local governments have the power to do so. See the individual state listings for details.

CA: California landlords, who have long had the right to restrict pets, noise and even water beds in their units, can now prohibit smoking under a new law. The new law requires landlords to specify in their lease/rental agreements areas where smoking is prohibited on their properties.

IN: House Committee Passes Smoking Ban With Few Exemptions. If the ban does pass the House, it will go to the Senate Public Policy Committee - the same panel which overwhelmingly killed the bill last year, when health advocates insisted on a bill with no exceptions.

UK: Watch BBC - Timeshift The Smoking Years. Borja Cantera's film was a study of how quickly the universally acceptable can flip into the untolerated. Presented as the evolutionary history of the smoker, it began with the democratisation of the fag with the invention of the first cigarette-rolling machine in 1880 and closed with a hideous vista of extinguished stub-ends, smouldering gently like a post-apocalyptic landscape.

World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs.

The Slippery Slope After Tobacco

THE ANTI-TOBACCO RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
1. Choose an industry.
2. Regulate the industry.
3. Tax the industry.
4. Sue the industry.
When one source of money dries up, return to Step 1 and repeat.
By S. Phillipe

NY After Big Alcohol: Bloomberg forced to reverse decision to close New York liquor stores after bitter criticism by small businesses. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's warning of last call on drinks was just a test his office said Wednesday, just hours after news of his health-motivated plan broke. While he claims his health drive has improved New Yorkers' quality of life, critics deride his approach as a "nanny state" doctrine which infringes personal liberty. These plans would have made it harder for people to buy alcohol, both legally and illicitly - but could also reduce people's desire to do so, if the crackdown on advertising is successful.

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Chicago City Colleges ban ALL tobacco usage from anyone on campuses‎

2012-01-25T07:59:00.002-06:00

‎>>>>As we reinvent our institution to ensure students are prepared to compete for the jobs of the future, we must also provide a learning environment that protects their future health and well-being<<<<

ME: I love this quote! How the Fck is bannin bacco gonna protect students' health? Dose students can still get killed as even innocent ppl outside in the streets (even as nonsmokers). Smokin bans have no effect on Chi's hi crime rate. If you really wanna protect the students' health, banning firearms would certainly help. Because crime can have a serious effect on a victim's health. A MUCH MORE serious effect I might add.

*************************************************

CLICK HERE for full article.

As part of an effort to promote healthy lifestyles among students, faculty and staff, the City Colleges of Chicago Board of Trustees passed a 100 percent tobacco-free campus policy today, becoming the largest higher education institution in Chicago to do so. The policy, which will take effect March 1, 2012, prohibits tobacco use (including cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products) on all college property, impacting more than 120,000 students and 5,800 faculty and staff as well as visitors.

“This is an important step towards ensuring that our students have healthy and safe environments to live, learn, play and succeed,” said Mayor Emanuel. “Promoting healthy environments is crucial to securing a high-quality of life for Chicagoans in every neighborhood, supporting a vibrant economy, and keeping our city on the cutting edge.”

The policy will cover City Colleges’ seven colleges, seven satellite locations and the district office. City Colleges is offering “Courage to Quit” smoking cessation classes and other resources to assist students, faculty and staff at each college who want to quit smoking or stop using other tobacco products. These resources will be available at new college Wellness Centers.

“As we reinvent our institution to ensure students are prepared to compete for the jobs of the future, we must also provide a learning environment that protects their future health and well-being. The tobacco-free policy helps create a college environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle among our faculty, staff and students, and benefits the entire City Colleges community,” said Chancellor Hyman.

“This policy is critical in saving lives, and is an important step in implementing the City’s public health agenda, Healthy Chicago,” said Dr. Bechara Choucair, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. “College students use tobacco at a higher rate than the average of adults across the nation and we applaud City Colleges of Chicago for its bold move to help reduce tobacco use and decrease exposure to secondhand smoke.”

Eversmoke seems to be getting more popular in the e-cig industry

2012-01-19T12:12:00.001-06:00

I see 3 people have bought from EVERSMOKE.COM e-cig shop through the shop's links on my blog. And the links haven't been on here for a full month yet.

I see for myself Eversmoke is an e-cig that is gaining more popularity. Since it looks just like a real cigarette.

There IS a post on my blog which explains in-depth details on the Eversmoke e-cig. You may have to scroll down to the Jan 3 2012 blog post to view it.

E-cigs are "Electronic cigarettes." These cigs make a good alternative to smoking in indoor public areas. An e-cig produces vapor instead of tobacco smoke. Nor do they smell bad. If you see someone enjoying an e-cig in a tavern, he/she aint violating any smoking bans. Since NO SMOKE comes from the e-cig at all.

Property Rights Newsletter

2012-01-15T14:30:00.000-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter January 13, 2012 - Issue #646 From the desk of the Director of The Blatantly Obvious: Ban water vapor?! That must include tea, coffee, boiling water, soup, most hot foods, right? Note that no one wants to ban an alternative nicotine delivery system. That would cost Big Pharm money.
ALERT SC: North Myrtle Beach has decided to include E-cigs in their ordinance - heads up to smokers and vapers to protest the upcoming vote, scheduled for January 23rd. People might not be able to distinguish an e-cigarette from a real cigarette in certain situations, which is why the city council has decided to include e-cigarettes in its non-smoking ordinance. "There’s a psychological impact of it," City Councilman Bob Cavanaugh said. "For example, if you’re in a theater and look around and see 10 people with it, it looks like they are smoking. There’s an influence on other people, especially at night when an e-cigarette looks like a cigarette." Cavanaugh said Monday that the council has done an "outstanding" job with the ordinance, but he would like to see whether businesses would make that choice to go smoke free on their own instead of there being a government mandate. "I think that a vast majority of them would make the decision to be smoke free on their own," he said. "I feel uncomfortable doing a mandate on a social issue. I think there should be a mandate to have a sign that says smoking or non-smoking. For one year, let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, we can put in all mandates." Read: Product Reviews. It is your choice to "smoke" anywhere and at any time you want, with no consideration of any smoking bans. This is legal (WATER) vapor, not banned smoke. Take a few puffs and keep from getting a withdrawal headache in any workplace, a hospital, restaurant, bar, airplane, store, church... anywhere! "Nicotine Delivery Systems" have no bans, Big Pharm wants you to buy their patches and gums. Don't give them your money when you can smoke and get the nicotine you want from someone else. Read: More articles about Electronic Cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes on airplanes, KY E-cigarettes, Electronic Cigarettes and the FDA, USA Big Pharm only wants you to use THEIR quit smoking products, Electric cigarette beats pub smoking ban, Turkey E-cig, UK Meets the e-cig, and more. Read: Antis: What to expect, The Cold Sharp Slap Of Reality. World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs.

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Bus Driver tells smokin lady to sit in back

2012-01-13T15:42:00.001-06:00

>>>>OC Transpo is investigating and a woman says she feels "harassed" as a smoker after a bus driver allegedly asked her to move to the back of his bus because he didn't like how she smelled.<<<<

(ME: When I read dis, it rang a bell in my head. Somethang very similar to dis happened to Rosa Parks. Cept her driver told her to move to the back cause of her skin color.)

To view full article, CLICK HERE.

Who still smokes in the USA? (Chart)

2012-01-07T16:50:00.002-06:00

((ImgTag ))
Source: Who Still Smokes? Smokers in the U.S. Today

Property Rights Newsletter

2012-01-07T09:13:00.000-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter
January 6, 2012 - Issue #645
"On a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority, trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other."
- James Madison

Formal request for: Future CDC Study on Economic Impact of Smoke-Free Policies on Bars and Restaurants. By Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association. This is an outrage! Our organization has watched as members and friends have depleted their lifelong savings to keep their doors open to their bars, bowling alleys, etc. after Ohio's draconian smoking ban. Some of these small business owners have sold their businesses at a loss while others have lost not only their bars but their homes through bankruptcy. To read that the CDC and CDC Foundation are complicit in covering up these facts is sickening. How is RTI International going to reach any other conclusion than what the CDC has already announced? Now that they know what the CDC expects the finding to be, all they have to do is search until they find numbers they can use to meet the CDC's expectations. We expect a full investigation.

From Toxic T-Shirts To Twizzler TV! By Michael J. McFadden. Remember "product placement?" Now we're not just talking about the long tolerated brainwashing of children on Saturday mornings, we're talking about the blatant and often completely out-of-place scripting involving major characters in series like "Fringe" and "Warehouse 13" suddenly offering each other Twizzlers or having prominent bright red/orange Twizzler goodie boxes on office desks in scenes where almost everything else is sort of a bland beige. How much does Twizzler-Caused Obesity cost our Gross National Product? Just how deadly IS Third Hand Twizzler Juice when it's passed on from Evil Candy Chompers to innocent loved ones through fingertips or stains on clothing?

From The Mailbag

CA: S.B. COUNTY: Hospital smoking ban defeated. The ban would have applied to all sidewalk, streets, parking lots, open spaces and cars on the campus. Supervisor Gary Obit said it was going too far to tell smokers they couldn’t smoke in their own automobiles parked at the hospital.

MD: Premium Cigar Group Girds for Maryland Tax Increase Battle. “Maryland voters are sick of increased taxes disguised to obscure government over-spending and they are tired of being told what to do and how to behave. We must stand against higher taxes, bigger and more wasteful government, and the infantilization of America by the ‘people who think they know better’,” said Bill Spann, CEO of the IPCPR.

USA: Please sign the petition: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Needs to compensate people & businesses harmed by special interest lobbying. Hundreds of thousands of people in the hospitality industry lose jobs and homes as a result.

India: More Ban Damage and lives lost because of smoking bans. Smokers turned off detectors at AMRI hospital. 93 persons suffocated to death in the blaze.

Turkey: Turkish Air Force Bombs Cigarette Smugglers! Airstrike on Turkey-Iraq border kills 35 people. "A group of villagers were coming from northern Iraq across the border after 9:30 p.m. Their path was blocked by soldiers and then four planes bombed them," said the official, Yunus Urek of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party.

World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs.

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PA: Hospital Quits Hiring Smokers

2012-01-06T11:01:00.001-06:00

Smokers in the medical field now have another reason to quit as a Pennsylvania hospital has said it will no longer hire smokers and is introducing nicotine tests in order to enforce the rule.
Geisinger Health System's smoke-free health policy will go into effect on Feb. 1, according to KKTV.com.
"Not only do we want to practice what we preach, but we also want our employees to feel healthy, we want our patients and visitors to feel that they are in a healthy environment. So it's an overall commitment to the well-being of all those people," Geisinger spokeswoman Marcy Marshall told the Vancouver Sun.

To view full article, CLICK HERE.

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Me: This should be illegal. A smoker should have every right to work in a hospital just like a nonsmoking Black person, a gay nonsmoker, and a nonsmoking lady. And how is a nic test gonna work when a nonsmoker could have eaten potatoes and tomatpoes? Those food products contain nic.

Clearing the Air: Why Smoking Bans are bad for businesses

2012-01-05T11:01:00.001-06:00

From Audrey Silk of N.Y.C. C.L.A.S.H

CLICK THIS to view full page.

***************

Pfizer is the manufacturer of a variety of quit smoking aids known as NRTs (nicotine replacement therapies). Smoking bans -- a measure intended, in part, to coerce smokers into quitting -- are such good business for them that they fund drives by anti-smoker groups across the country. If smokers quit they might reach for these NRTs for assistance. Smoking bans shut out the competition over which nicotine product to use.

Here's the article I was interviewed for

2012-01-04T17:10:00.000-06:00

CLICK THIS to read full article.

>>>>"I'm probably going to smoke until the day I die. I'm more concerned about a bullet killing me than smoking."<<<<

I can confirm this is an UN-edited quote from myself. It's the only quote from myself within the article as well.

Details on the Eversmoke E-cigarette

2012-01-03T19:06:00.004-06:00

Electronic cigarette: Eversmoke

Signature Glowing Orange Crystal Tip

The EverSmoke Electronic Cigarettes have an Orange LED that lights up with each puff and will signal when your electronic cigarette needs to be recharged.

Rechargeable Battery

Our EverSmoke electronic cigarette batteries are the longest lasting lithium-polymer batteries on the market. This proprietary battery is designed for maximum vapor and performance. Available in a variety of sizes and colors.

Built in Atomizer

Unlike many other e-cigarette brands, the EverSmoke atomizer is built into the cartridge to produce maximum vapor and ensure that you get a fresh atomizer with each new EverSmoke electronic cigarette cartridge.

Flavor Cartridge

EverSmoke Electronic Cigarette Cartridges are designed and built with our exclusive VaporMax® technology that insures a clean smooth draw that produces maximum vapor. Exclusive to EverSmoke, you won't find VaporMax® on any other electronic cigarette brand.

Silicone Tip

The exclusive silicone tip within the mouth piece is designed to prevent leakage. One hole intake for maximized draw and resistance for an authentic cigarette feel.

Cigarettiquette

2012-01-03T17:57:00.000-06:00

Someone posted this project as a comment on my blog. I think this project looks neat. I wish the person the best of luck in reaching the fund goal within the next 2 months.

For the record, Cigarettiquette is gonna be a book with the prosmoking/smokers rights theme.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/waifette/cigarettiquette

It's not a Happy New Year for smokers and hospitality owners

2012-01-02T13:04:00.001-06:00

Is this reallly a "Happy New Year?" Not really, since I still haven't heard of `any smoking ban getting revoked yet. I heard of a maybe two bans over the past 4 years adding businesses as ban exemptions. But not a full-out ban revoke.

Happy 4th anniversary to the Illinois statewide smoking ban. It's good to know lots of tavern owners in Chicago and throughout IL are ignoring the ban by letting their patrons light up. I dunno how much those so-called "tickets" are for the owners. But I bet smokers don't mind "donating" money to the taverns in exchange for lighting up with their drink.

It's also been 4 years since the last time cig prices went up in Chicago. I know a $1 state cig tax hike was proposed last year down in Springfield. But the tax hike never passed.

Happy New Year for smokers and businesses? NOT!

Article update

2011-12-28T12:09:00.002-06:00

It was brought to my attention the article I was interviewed for may have been pushed back to NEXT Wednesday. I couldn't find it when I tried my own search on the Trib's site.

"They always do that without telling us." (The reporter's quote)

Maybe the Trib pushed it back to give em more time to edit my own words since I definitely replied to his Qs as a committed smoker. If anyone asks me "Are you interested in quitting smoking for the new year?" I'm gonna be honest with a NO. I aint gonna lie just to made someone's column look good.

Cigarette Price Watch

2011-12-28T11:07:00.001-06:00

A page dealing with news in connection with cig prices throughout the nation (ie: Cig tax increases within certain states).

http://cigaretteprices.us/

Another Dec Newsletter

2011-12-23T11:37:00.001-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter
December 16, 2011 - Issue #642
"Common sense is not so common."
- Voltaire

US calls for ban on in-car phone use ... even with Bluetooth. The government's transportation safety experts recommended Tuesday to ban all American drivers from using portable electronic devices — including cell phones, even if you use a hands-free device. "No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life," Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference in Washington. Besides calling for government action, the NTSB also urged consumer electronics manufacturers to figure out a way to "disable the functions of portable electronic devices within reach of the driver when a vehicle is in motion" while at the same time being able to turn themselves back on in an emergency. - But similar studies linking cellphone use to poor driving have been challenged, most recently by researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit, who concluded last month that some earlier studies were seriously flawed.

Seneca cigarette dealer files for bankruptcy. One of the biggest movers of Native American-made cigarettes has filed for federal bankruptcy protection, a month after a court said the wholesaler is responsible for potentially tens of millions of dollars in federal tobacco assessments. The Chapter 11 reorganization filing by Arthur Montour, owner of Native Wholesale Supply on the Seneca Indian Nation’s Cattaraugus Reservation, lists more than $50 million in liabilities by the businessman who has become wealthy by moving billions of cigarettes made on an Ontario reservation to other tribes across the United States.

California couple enlists churchmember to beat their teen for smoking. Paul Kim, 39, of Chino Hills, is facing felony child cruelty charges after cops say he hammered the unidentified high schooler about a dozen times with an inch-thick pipe at the boy's parents request. San Bernardino County Sheriff's department is asking any other victims and witnesses to come forward.

Cut Off Anti Funding!

Can the Dutch Government Really Be Abandoning Smokers to Their Fate? Let us hope they are. A wailing letter to the editors of the Lancet, signed by Stanton Glantz and other anti-tobacco fanatics, complains that the Dutch government "is all but closing down its tobacco control operations." So what have the Dutch actually done? Chris Snowden explains: Last year, it relaxed the Dutch smoking ban after a grass-roots campaign led by small bar owners. This year it decided that there are better uses for public money than funding anti-tobacco advocacy groups whose beliefs are fundamentally at odds with Dutch liberalism.

More: Welkom bij de site van Forces Nederland. Nieuw Nederlandstalig boek over meeroken, De Mythe over Passief Roken, By Marcel Roggemans. - Gezondheidsindustrie: De internationale hulptroepen van Stivoro. - Overheid: 600 doden extra door beleid Minister Schippers? - Overheid: FDA: Grafische waarschuwingen ineffectief.

World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs.

Click here to watch: Denmark Smokers Rights
(Lyrics in English and German)

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Property Rights Newsletter

2011-12-23T11:20:00.001-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter December 23, 2011 - Issue #643 "The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."
Our Christmas Card For You. Read more about keeping Christmas in Christmas. Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicolas soon would be there. When suddenly up on the roof, there a'rose such a clatter, I jumped up from my bed, to see what was the matter. I ran down the stairs, and what did I find? a big fat elf smoke'n in my living room, ...must be out of his mind. I yelled HEY! get out of here with that pipe, You're stinkin' up my house, and that ain't just no hype. I'll get the Lung Association, and Heart Association and ANR in your face, I'll make a few calls, and even get Repace! and I'll bet you didn't even pay taxes on the weed in that thing, when the attorney general gets done with you, you'll end up in Sing Sing. and the FAA says you can't smoke on your sleigh, It's a regularly scheduled flight, even if it's for only one day. and the law says you can't smoke, in your workshop at all, the Dept. of Health will fine you, when I give em' a call. So get out of here with that thing, and don't ever come back, or ASH will rip it out of your mouth, and shove it up your crack. Next year Tobacco-free Kids will deliver our gift, you're banished from Christmas, do you get my drift? and I heard him exclaim, as he rode out of sight, Merry Christmas to all! 'cept the dork on my right. See more comedy at: Comedy Week
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I was interviewed by a newspaper's reporter on smoking topics

2011-12-22T19:26:00.002-06:00

Last week, I was interviewed by a Chicago Tribune reporter for his column dealing with dangerous activities people enjoy and refuse to quit (such as smoking).

This reporter actually found me through my blog. And I'm guessing he researched it before deciding to contact me. He did ask me what do I find so glamorous about smoking? That Q is more closer to being a smoking fetish Q to me.

I basically told him "I like the feeling of holding a cig and there's actually glamor in the act of inhaling the smoke in itself. And of course, I think lots of women look attractive with a cig."

Most of his Qs were more closer to general smoking Qs. Such as "What do you think of the quit smoking tv commercials?" (I think they're a joke and they have no effect on me wanting to stop smoking) And he brought up the IL smoking ban topic as well.

His column will be published in the Dec. 28th Chicago Tribune. I'll have to visit the Trib site on that date.

City extends smoking ban

2011-12-22T11:53:00.002-06:00

LINK TO PAGE

SMOKING will be banned in all outdoor dining areas in Parramatta by May.The council passed the ban after the results of a survey of 900 people that showed it was supported by 68 per cent of respondents.
The policy will also ban smoking within 10 metres of children's playgrounds, sporting fields, sports facilities and bus and taxi stands.
"The impacts of secondhand smoking have been well documented and this new measure will be welcomed by many restaurant-goers, particularly those who frequent our popular Church Street Eat Street precinct," Lord mayor Lorraine Wearne said.

The council acknowledged business owners surveyed opposed the restriction.
"The council is committed to working with our local establishments to minimise any impacts," Cr Wearne said.
"With our high concentration of restaurants and cafes, we're quite different to many other metropolitan areas that have already implemented a similar ban, which is why it was important to engage with all relevant stakeholders."

The ban was scheduled to be implemented a year ago but was delayed after the council received two petitions against the ban, one signed by 120 restaurateurs and another by 8400 diners in Parramatta.
"Every restaurant I spoke to said. . . they were worried about the business they would lose due to this band," Parramatta resident Michael Rhima said when the ban was proposed.

"We're facing tough economic times as it is.
"We shouldn't be further discouraging business from our local restaurants."
The council has said it will run an awareness and education campaign highlighting the new outdoor smoking policy over the next six months. It has also promised to provide resources and, in some cases, financial support for businesses during the transition period.
The council will write to the state government seeking uniform outdoor smoking legislation across the state.

Eversmoke.com: A newer e-cig shop

2011-12-08T00:11:00.001-06:00

This is a newer electronic cigarette I just learned about. EverSmoke!

EVERSMOKE.COM

One difference I notice with eversmoke is this e-cig has a recharageable battery. If you order a starting kit by December 18, the starting kit will be $59.99.

I love how the LED light on EverSmoke is orange. Which means it looks lioke an actual cig when you puff on it.

The War on Smoking is not about health (my comment to this blog post)

2011-12-05T12:53:00.001-06:00

LINK TO BLOG

Yup, antis don’t care about my safety when it comes to me smoking outside. I heard of smokers getting murdered, raped, and robbed over the years while simply smoking outside. It’s a lot more safer for smokers to enjoy a cig inside than outside for reasons that deal with more than just their health. I aint risking my life to just smoke outside late at night.

Antis got their smoking bans wish. What they need to do is patronize these smoke-free places to make up for the huge loss of smoking patrons. Smoking bans in general is more about greed from antis. Health is more of an excuse to me.

My reply to "Is smoking a cigarette attractive?"

2011-12-05T12:43:00.001-06:00

Smoking a cigarette is very attractive. But thanks to smoking bans, the antismokers and politicians have taken away the beauty of seeing ladies smoke in taverns and restaurants. SHS is nothing but BS from antis as a way to wipe tobacco off of planet Earth. SHS never harmed nonsmokers and kids in the 80s. How the heck can SHS harm nonsmokers now? If someone said "SHS can kill ir pets," would you believe that BS? The feeling of even holding a lit cig is powerful to me.

gotcheapsmokes.com: A US-based smoke shop with cartons of real cigs

2011-11-30T23:42:00.001-06:00

I found a US-based smoke shop that is NOT an e-cig shop. Based on my research, this shop WILL deliver cigs to your home through a private carrier.

GOTCHEAPSMOKES.COM

5-carton minimum on ALL orders.

Payment by: E-CHECK (no credit cards)

Shipping Rate: $19.99 for the first 5 cartons.
$2.50 for each additional carton (when ordering 6 cartons or more)

Delivered by: A private carrier

Delivery time for orders: 7-14 business days

Reports orders? NO

Sells Marlboro and Newport for premium cigs

Sells mostly Native cig brands (ie: Seneca, Skydancer, Lewiston, etc)

Also sells cigars and loose tobacco.

Obama scolds tobacco firms for fighting new labels

2011-11-18T12:29:00.001-06:00

Obama scolds tobacco firms for fighting new labels

By: JIM KUHNHENN | 11/17/11 5:03 AM
Associated Press

President Barack Obama — pronounced tobacco-free in his latest medical checkup — has tough words for cigarette makers.
Some tobacco companies, he says in a new White House web video, are fighting new cigarette warning labels because "they don't want to be honest about the consequences."
The video, provided to The Associated Press in advance of its release, observes Thursday's 36th "Great American Smokeout" by the American Cancer Society.
Obama says the country has made progress in reducing the number of Americans who smoke but notes that 46 million are still addicted.
"The fact is, quitting smoking is hard," he says. "Believe me, I know."
Obama has fought the habit by chewing nicotine gum, and his last medical report, issued Oct. 31, declared him tobacco-free.
"Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable early deaths in this country," Obama says in the video. "We also know that the best way to prevent the health problems that come with smoking is to keep young people from starting in the first place."

In 2009, Obama signed legislation to help keep young people from lighting up. In June, the Food and Drug Administration approved new warning labels that companies would have to place on the top half of cigarette packs. Some of the labels are powerfully graphic and include images of a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, the corpse of a dead smoker, diseased lungs and a smoker wearing an oxygen mask.
Companies led by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. sued the FDA in August to block the labels, arguing the labels cross the line from fact-based warnings to anti-smoking advocacy. R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard declined to comment on the Obama video. Altria Group Inc., parent company of Marlboro maker Philip Morris USA, is not in the lawsuit.
Earlier this month a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in the suit, blocking the requirement that would have begun forcing tobacco companies next year to put graphic images on their cigarette packages. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said it is likely the cigarette makers will succeed in their suit to block the new standard.
"Today, some big tobacco companies are trying to block these labels because they don't want to be honest about the consequences using their products," Obama says. "Unfortunately, this isn't surprising.
"We've always known that the fight to stop smoking in this country won't be easy."
In the video, the president directs viewers to the Health and Human Services Department website, www.hhs.gov, which has links to resources that can help smokers quit and highlights government efforts to prevent young people from lighting up.

'Taxed Out' NYC smokers are rolling their own cigs

2011-11-06T12:56:00.002-06:00

CLICK THIS for full article.

NEW YORK — At Island Smokes on New York City's Lower East Side, customers sick of the highest tax on cigarettes in America are fighting back by rolling their own cigarettes out of pipe tobacco.

It's a way around New York City's sky-high cigarette taxes, which have led to a 35 percent drop in smoking rates since 2002, when city anti-smoking initiatives began. according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Among New York City public school students the drop is sharper, down 52 percent since 2001, the New York City Department of Health says.
But while city residents may be smoking less, the high taxes — which boost the cost of cigarettes to as high as $15 a pack — have fueled a black market in contraband cigarettes.
All over New York City, runners hawk untaxed, $5-a-pack smokes on city street corners. Newsstand owners pocket city and state taxes with each cheap pack. And Indian reservations flood the market with contraband cigarettes.
State law requires that reservations sell cigarettes only to tribe members, but last year the smoke shops on the tiny Poospatuck Indian reservation on Long Island sold more than 4 million cartons. That would require every man, woman and child on the reservation to smoke 523 packs a day, the city charged in court papers last fall, complaining those cigarettes were being sold, illegally, in New York City.
At Island Smokes, customers pay $4.50 per pack if they make one pack of cigarettes; the price drops to $3 a pack if they make an entire carton of 10 packs. By comparison, one pack of 20 cigarettes averages $11 to $13 in the city and can be as high as $15.
Customers don't actually roll the cigarettes themselves but use a speedy "RYO" (Roll Your Own) machine that squirts the tobacco into a hollow paper-and-filter ensemble. A carton takes about half an hour to make.
As he made his smokes, Lucky Strike smoker Christopher Geist recalled what led him here.
Heading north from Florida to join the Occupy Wall Street movement, his cigarette costs skyrocketed from $4.50 a pack in Florida to $6 in Washington and to $8 in Philadelphia. In Virginia, a friend warned him about New York City.

"Fourteen dollars a pack? Are you kidding me?," Geist responded.

CIg smugling costs states billions

2011-10-28T18:18:00.001-05:00

ARTICLE LINK

My comment: It's a small thing like cig smuggling which contributes to the states' economy problems. But I believe it on cigs being worth more than even crack in NY! Keep raising the cig prices. And cig bootleggers will keep cashing in on resellin stolen packs from cig heists.

****************
Many state governments are struggling to make ends meet, and many are laying off cops and teachers.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that, as a result, some states are losing billions of dollars to smugglers in an illegal trade that can be more profitable than drug dealing.
On Interstate 95, at the Virginia-Maryland border, CBS News observed police closing in on a suspected smuggler. He was not running drugs, but something even more profitable.
Inside the car police find 12 cases of cigarettes - 3,600 packs - bought in Virginia, and likely destined to be resold illegally in New York.
"There are people who make a living out of smuggling cigarettes, and by that I mean van-loads and truck-loads of cigarettes, and the amount of money is phenomenal. It's tens of thousands of dollars in any particular run," said Jeff Kelly, who is in charge of the anti-smuggling efforts in Maryland.
Here's how the smugglers are cashing in: They buy carloads of cigarettes in low tax states like North Carolina and Virginia for about $4 per pack, then sell them in high-tax states like New York, for up to $12 dollars per pack.
Since the bootleggers aren't paying the high New York taxes, they pocket easy money selling their cigarettes on the streets, or in Mom and Pop convenience stores.
One regular carload could bring $30,000 in illegal profits.
"This is becoming the new organized crime, the new Prohibition," said ATF agent Rich Marianos. "Every day we see more and more criminal organizations utilizing illegal cigarettes to facilitate their operations."
It's those criminal organizations and violent gangs the ATF is targeting.
In one sting, members of a Philadelphia street crew traded a bundle of marijuana for cartons of cigarettes to undercover agents posing as dealers.
After gaining their trust, the agents helped the gang "plot" an armed robbery of a competing smuggler. The gang members were all arrested, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms.
"Many occasions we'll have a narcotics dealer bring us firearms and narcotics to trade for contraband cigarettes or untaxed cigarettes. It's extremely lucrative," said Marianos.
The U.S. Justice Department estimates state and local governments are losing $5 billion per year from untaxed cigarettes being sold on the black market. Police know they're only catching a fraction of the smugglers.
Weak laws are big part of the problem. Unless guns or drugs are involved, smuggling penalties are light. The two men arrested in the stop observed by CBS News, if convicted, face a maximum of two years in prison.

Property Rights Newsletter

2011-10-16T18:50:00.002-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter
October 14, 2011 - Issue #633
"When the smoke started to fill the air, a transformation
came over the place. It was no longer somewhere to go
for a drink. It was a pub - a proper pub."
- Richard Catton, Columnist and Non-Smoker

Prohibition: By Frank Davis. For it’s the strange thing about all these prohibitionists, whether they’re trying to prohibit alcohol or tobacco, that for all the supposed moral righteousness of their cause, they never hesitate to tell the most outrageous lies to further their cause. It’s one of the deepest contradictions of their position. Somehow or other they always feel obliged to exaggerate the problem (if there was any problem at all). It never seems to occur to them that one day their lies will be found out, and that nobody will believe a word they say any more.

From The Mailbag

IN: Indianapolis mayoral candidates. Ballard said Indianapolis isn't ready for a full smoking ban, but he supports "compromise." He said he has trouble supporting a full smoking ban because he doesn't want to tell war veterans that they can't smoke at their VFW posts. Most businesses have decided to go smoke-free on their own, he said.

LA: Premium Cigar Group Calls Alexandria, LA Positions on Smoking Bans Irrational. "The city’s expanded smoking ban will negatively impact bars, taverns and other small businesses. This is no time to put such establishments at risk as well as the jobs and tax revenues they provide. We are against legislated smoking bans that come from Big Brother and the nanny state. Instead, we favor and uphold the rights of property owners to decide for themselves the smoking policies for their respective businesses," said Bill Spann, chief executive officer of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

MA: Springfield. As of next April people won't be allowed to smoke in their apartments anymore. And the following year a person won't be allowed to smoke outdoors on the grounds of the city’s public housing projects.

SC: North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, opponent Chris Collins voice differences. Summey said he didn't think the city should be dictating what he considered a decision by a private business. Collins said he would at least consider the issue going to a referendum to decide.

SD: Video lottery revenue is still running behind prior years because of a drop caused by the slow economy and the smoking ban imposed last year.

Canada: Lac Des Mille Lodge for sale. Only 280 miles from Duluth, MN, or 100 miles West of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Email ldmsl@tbaytel.net for information.

UK: Freedom2Choose. A welcome from new Joint Chairman Dave Atherton. I sense that smoker-phobia may have reached its zenith. The anti-smoker crowd, with all its hubris, has decided to include drinking and, to a lesser extent, obesity in its quest for the perfect body.

World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs.

"Make no judgments where you have no compassion."
- Anne McCaffrey

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
- Mother Teresa

Watch: Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror

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Another fed tobacco tax increase on the horizon??

2011-10-16T18:40:00.001-05:00

Our favorite anti-tobacco zealots are at it again with a proposal that will double the 2009 taxes on cigarettes and bring "equality" in taxes on other tobacco products like Swedish snus, dissolvables and E Cigs. Senate bill S.1403.

Make your feelings known at-

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s1403/report#nation

It will also forward comments to your Senators. If you want to stop another tax increase, act now.

Also share this information wherever possible. Another burden forced on the tobacco user in the name of health.

(A cited post from the Smokers Club Inc Forum)

I am NOT a female Jay

2011-10-15T12:39:00.000-05:00

I see one webpage has my blog on the links list. But the person who wrote the page calls me a "FEMALE smoker." For any newbie lurkers, I hate to burst your bubble. But I'm a man. Although I certainly like women who are SERIOUS smokers. A serious smoker is one who enjoys smoking. And he/she has no intentions of quitting at any point in his./her life.

I do understand how "Jay" is also a girl's name in other countries. But this Jay is all man.

MT: Ban places smokers in dangerous situations

2011-10-15T09:42:00.004-05:00

I think U of Montana needs to realize you can't force ANY student to quit smoking. And making a female student's safety more risky (while she smokes outside of her dorms at nite) is NOT normal.

But hey, that's the "F**k smokers!" mindset most nonsmokers have in modern times, Smokers shouldn't be ignored when their safety is at risk.

*****************

ARTICLE LINK

Young women are discouraged from walking across campus alone at night. Most of the University of Montana stays well-lit, but dark shadows still creep across the grass and the flashing blue lights of emergency phones can seem far apart.

With the new smoking ban, young women living in the dorms must now walk to the edge of campus for a cigarette.

Chief of Campus Security Gary Taylor said this issue has not been fully addressed yet.

"We're forcing girls into a dangerous situation," he said.

Freshman Emma Brunckhorst agrees.

She said she's glad she lives in Jesse Hall because it's right beside the designated smoking area on campus.

Freshman Michelle Beckenhauer doesn't feel so lucky. Living in Jesse Hall's twin, Aber Hall, she's a half-mile from where her peers smoke.

"I just end up breaking the rule and smoke right outside Aber," Beckenhauer said.

Taylor admits the distance of some dorms from the smoking-friendly rim around campus could increase the risk for students. He plans to bring the issue up in the next Tobacco Task Force meeting.

"We've tried so hard to get people to smoke off campus that we never considered these girls," Taylor said.

Public Safety responded to four attempted rapes, four aggravated assaults and two robberies on campus between 2007 and 2010, according to the 2010 Public Safety Crime Statistics report. Six of those incidents happened in dorms or university-owned apartments. In the same report, the Student Assault Resource Center said that only 13 percent of sex crime victims they've worked with in the same time period reported the incident to Public Safety or the Missoula Police.

Linda Green, the director of Health Enhancement for the Curry Health Center, said she hopes students will follow the smoking ban despite the hazards of walking alone across campus. While students cannot be ticketed for smoking on campus, they can be written up for a violation of the Student Conduct Code.

"I don't want to see that happen," she said.

Green advocates that women who want to smoke at night should always have a friend with them. Taylor also strongly urges that women not go alone.

But Beckenhauer doesn't think that's always possible. "I usually smoke with my boyfriend, but he lives (across campus) in Duniway and my roommate doesn't smoke," she said.

Green said the ban is not meant to be punitive toward smokers. She admits the ban makes it harder for them, but she thanks them for being compliant with the new policy.

Green recommends nicotine gum or patches to help reduce cravings after dark. She also suggested an upcoming acupuncture clinic to help smokers overcome the addiction.

The Griz Personal Safety cart zips around after dark as a resource for safely getting across campus. Usually used for trips to the library or between dorms, driver Jake Thiesen said no one has used it to get to the smoking areas.

"Most of the calls we get are from freshmen," he said. "For the first couple weeks a lot of the freshmen don't know about this service so ... maybe as it goes on we'll get a couple calls."

Taylor said he doesn't think the Griz Personal Safety staff should be used to escort smokers.

"The whole intent of the ban is to get people to stop smoking," he said.

IL: Judge sides with cigar shop in lawsuit

2011-09-14T14:51:00.004-05:00

CLICK HERE to view the actual page.

******************************************

St. Charles, IL —

A Kane County judge ruled that ShoDeen Management will have to uphold its lease that allows Bull and Bear tobacco shop in St. Charles to allow smoking indoors.

The decision came during a hearing late last month.

“We are pleased to continue to be able to serve our customers like we have been for the last 16 years,” said shop owner Zita Harmon.

Harmon said she was happy the judge ruled in her favor.

During an interview earlier this summer, Harmon said she received a notice of default in February from ShoDeen telling her that she was in violation of her lease because smoke odor from her shop was filtering into nearby businesses. Robert Minetz, ShoDeen Management’s attorney, said that the company received complaints from surrounding businesses.

In Illinois, shops that make more than 80 percent of sales through tobacco products can allow smoking indoors. Because the shop has been open since 1995, it also operates under a grandfather clause that allows smoking in the shop — despite a smoking ban in stores within shopping centers that share the same building.

Why I Love Cigarettes (webpage)

2011-08-16T07:58:00.002-05:00

I can agree with (as the page's author says) a "cig tasting yummy" once you get used to smoking cigs.

But even at that, not all cigs taste "yummy" to me. Camels make me wanna puke. Newport Reds would make me wanna stop smoking. It does suck it's getting harder and harder by the year to enjoy a legal product in public.

LINK TO PAGE

Marlboro Smooths

2011-08-05T20:36:00.000-05:00

I went to Indiana yesterday to get 2 ML menthol cartons, and one Newport 100 carton. And I bought a pack of both sizes of Marlboro Smooths.

Everyone is right. Marlboro Smooths smell and taste like peppermint. They taste like a candy cane to me. Smooths even make Newports taste like a non-menthol cig.

Well, Newports do taste more like a non-menthol with a touch of mint flavoring. But this candy-cone flavoring in the Smooths is a lot different than the average taste of a menthol (ML menthols included).

The inside of my mouth feels like I sucked a peppermint-flavored breath mint afta smoking a Smooth. I like that peppermint feeling in my mouth.

I normally hate peppermint. But the peppermint/candy cane-like taste in these Smooths is cool.

Next time I go to Indiana, I gotta see if Smooths are available in cartons. This brand is a lil stronger than ML menthols. Nowhere close to being as strong as a Newport.

I smoked the king-sized Smooths first.

Should smokers be shot?

2011-08-02T06:29:00.001-05:00

(My comment from a blog post at Smoke Screens)

"Should smokers be shot?" Nope. It seems like we live in a time where lots of people don't seem to understand we all live once. And people who shoot/stab smokers to death are no exception. I don't even know how resorting to violence is gonna encourage smokers to quit. What it WILL do is encourage the serious smokers to give the "snipers" a taste of their own medicine.

I was right when I said we are approaching an era where smokers may have to literally defend themselves with a gun just to simply smoke outside. I do know the violence should be enough proof that smoking bans don't work.

No smoking bans = No more violence from antismokers

I can't see a sniper shooting/stabbing a smoker in an indoor place where smoking is permitted.

My mother is smoking in heaven now

2011-07-18T15:06:00.000-05:00

My mother died at the age of 66 back on the Fourth of July. I can confirm smoking did NOT kill her. She collapsed on the floor in her bedroom. The doctors suspected she had a heart attack. Which caused the collapse.

Some ladies think 66 is a young age to die at. I disagree. Once my mom turned 65, she joined the senior citizens club. Maybe if she died at 56, I'd call that a young age.

She smoked for 50 years. And she lived a long life to me since antismokers teach you'll die within 40 years after you start smoking. The fact she smoked for half of a century is impressive. Now she can enjoy her cigs in heaven.

Property Rights Newsletter

2011-07-02T20:24:00.002-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

July 1, 2011 - Issue #619

"You may fool all the people some of the time,
you can even fool some of the people all of the time,
but you cannot fool all of the people all the time."
- Abraham Lincoln

The Smoking-Ban in Andalucia - Spain. By Peter Thurgood for The Smoker's Club. To my great disappointment, Paco had also succumbed to the ban, even though, once again, he is also a strong smoker. The first night we tried there, it was closed, although it was barely 11 pm, the second night, we tried it earlier, and found just a few people in there. I joined Paco out in the alley, where we both smoked cigarettes and spoke of the injustice of the ban, which has all but killed his business. The only gesture towards being smoker friendly was an ashtray placed on the seat of a motorbike parked outside. After a few visits, over the next few nights, mostly reserved to no more than two drinks each time, I think I managed to talk Paco into opening a window up, and having a shelf built outside, as a sort of mini-bar there.

Smokers Comprise Only 20% Of Lung Cancer Rates. The crux of the problem though is that we are so convinced smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, and COPD, that all money and efforts are directed into lowering smoking rates rather than focusing on the disease itself. With the smoking rates much lower than they were some 40 years ago, we are now in a time when the real picture will begin to emerge. Fabricated numbers and bogus studies will continue, but they will not be able to ignore or hide increases in the number of "smokers' diseases" afflicting non-smokers, which seems to be happening as of late.

Sitting down ‘raises death risk by as much as 40% and is NOT countered by exercise. That might sound ridiculous -- or obvious -- depending on your perspective, but the findings don't come from a fringe study. They come from the American Cancer Society, whose researchers studied 123,216 people's health outcomes during a 14-year period. (Frank Davis adds: So, like, some women who sit for less than six hours a day don’t actually, y’know... ever die? Oh Gawwwd. For crying out loud. Give us a break willya!)

Why Do We Die? Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.

From The Mailbag

MI: Media ignores catastrophic effects on small business of Michigan smoking ban. This month, Lottery Commissioner M. Scott Bowen testified before a House Committee on Regulatory Reform that the state has lost over $80 million in sales from bar Club Keno since the beginning of the ban. Media reports: Zero. Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, and many municipalities have recently rejected private property tobacco use bans. Many of these states and districts are using Michigan as an example of what will happen if such laws are passed.

MI: East Lansing. New legislation to be introduced to amend Smoke-Free Air Law. Because the decline in business for restaurants and bars has been dramatic, exemptions to the smoking ban should be considered, Melton said.

MO: Listen to Gary Nolan debates Chris Kelly on cigarette taxes.

USA: The Attack on Dignity and Moral Autonomy: The Case of Cigarettes. By Mario Rizzo. Case closed. So the whole campaign is an insult to the dignity of the individual. It is an attack on the older principle of informed choice. It does not respect individual moral autonomy. It is an example of the sickness of modern American society.

Australia: Imperial warns of nanny state. The TV, radio and newspaper ads warn of "Nanny State" legislation that erodes adult choice and sets a dangerous precedent for other products, such as alcohol and fast food.

UK: TICAP Welcomes Campaign To Amend Smoking Ban. By John Gray. There is no doubt that the smoking ban has contributed substantially to the demise of the British pub plus other hospitality outlets, and this trend is reflected worldwide - whenever a country adopts a smoking ban, pubs and clubs start to close in large numbers and this phenomenon occurs irrespective of any other economic factors or conditions.

UK: MPs join campaign to change smoking ban. The Rt Hon Greg Knight, Conservative MP for East Yorkshire, Roger Godsiff, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green, and John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, will host a reception for the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign at the House of Commons.

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Property Rights Newsletter

2011-06-24T11:16:00.002-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

June 24, 2011 - Issue #618

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be."
- Voltaire

Nevada Governor signs bill to allow smoking in standalone bars that serve food. Despite opposition from health officials, taverns and standalone bars have won the right to permit both smoking and food service under a bill signed into law Friday by Gov. Brian Sandoval. The new law becomes effective immediately. Under Assembly Bill 571, those under 21 will be barred from taverns where food and smoking is permitted. Under the bill, taverns and bars also could offer two sections: one where adults could smoke and eat, and a second, completely enclosed, no-smoking area for families and adults who prefer that option.

Meanwhile, in New York: The Daily Show with John Stewart. Sam Bee reports on the smoking ban in NYC parks. The video shows how silly the Anti's are demanding a smoke free park when there are so many real problems around! Great job!!!

Your Cigarette Packages!

USA FDA Cigarette Health Warnings. Beginning September 2012, FDA will require larger, more prominent cigarette health warnings on all cigarette packaging and advertisements in the United States. These warnings mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking.
No ifs, ands or butts FDA warning photos faked. There is only one problem with the federal government’s great campaign of graphic images aimed at combating the deceit of tobacco companies and rescuing us from our stupid selves. The images are fabricated. The dead man with the zipped-up chest? “It’s not a dead body,” the spokesman assured me. "It’s an actor. It’s supposed to be a cadaver after an autopsy." The man with the wispy smoke coming out of the hole in his throat? "That’s a Photoshopped illustration." The baby in an incubator is a creepy drawing. More...
The Black Pig Lung Hoax. It was an outright bald-faced lie. "Pankiw described the centerpiece of his anti-smoking display as the diseased lung of a 150-pound man who smoked for 15 years. Actually, it was a pig's lung shot full of various carcinogens on purpose, but, Pankiw said later, his lesson was made stronger by not passing along that tidbit of truth."
International Smokers Rights Conference. Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, June 27-29, 2005. Read what was presented by The Smoker's Club in 2005. Listen to Luc Martial saying that Canada forgot to check the facts on their new cigarette packs! They had to look around after the packs came out to find any doctor who would sign off on the facts with no checking.
More Package Warnings Articles from The Newsletter.

Have your say at the Club Forum!

The new images for packs are fake pics (editorial)

2011-06-22T12:38:00.001-05:00

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/21/hurt-no-ifs-ands-or-butts-fda-warning-photos-faked/?page=all#pagebreak

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

For decades, the federal government has accused tobacco companies of running a campaign of relentless deception in order to sell cigarettes and convince customers that their product will make you sexy, skinny, cool or whatever.

On Tuesday, the government unveiled its latest salvo in its campaign against these companies.

Tobacco peddlers will soon be forced to emblazon every package of their product with graphic new warnings that show what the government says will happen to you if you smoke cigarettes.

One warning shows a cadaver lying on a steel table, chest zipped closed by giant staples. Another, a pair of nastily corroded lungs. In another image, an infant is confined to an incubator and hooked up to a breathing tube. In one startling image, a man is puffing on a cigarette with wisps of smoke escaping a tracheotomy hole in the center of his throat.

There is only one problem with the federal government’s great campaign of graphic images aimed at combating the deceit of tobacco companies and rescuing us from our stupid selves.

The images are fabricated.

“Some are photographs; some are illustrations,” a spokesman at theDepartment of Health and Human Services explained to me Tuesday when I called about the new pictures.

The dead man with the zipped-up chest? “It’s not a dead body,” the spokesman assured me. “It’s an actor. It’s supposed to be a cadaver after an autopsy.”

The man with the wispy smoke coming out of the hole in his throat? “That’s a Photoshopped illustration.”

The baby in an incubator is a creepy drawing.

As for the corroded lungs? Who knows, given their track record so far? Maybe it is a real picture and that of a smoker. Or, perhaps they are the lungs of someone who handled asbestos in a Navy yard for the federal government. Or maybe it is altogether faked.

The government unveiled the bogus pictures at a White House event staged to look like a press conference.

William Corr, a deputy secretary at HHS, lamented the formal setting, saying: “We should be having a party to celebrate!” He went on to testify how the new pictures “tell the truth.”

Another government official called the tobacco company advertising “non-factual and controversial.” The government’s falsified pictures, he said, “speak the truth.”

Not that these government officials had to defend themselves or their campaign from anyone sitting in the audience section. Most questions began with a glowing congratulations or an emotional thank you.

“What languages will be available on the quit line?” inquired one of the questioners about the hotline number that will be plastered beneath each of the haunting images.

The gruesome nature of the pictures call to mind the deeply disturbing and bloody pictures pro-life protesters blow up and carry on picket signs outside political events.

A tiny fist, clenched as if around a finger - or in agony - ripped from its wrist, trailed by bloody veins. Or the unmistakable image of a baby’s face, squished and distorted and wrenched off its skull.

Few people find themselves exposed to these horrific images more often than reporters here in Washington, who travel the countryside chasing after political candidates.

When a bus full of reporters pulls into a political rally, these pictures bob up and down right at bus window level. A quiet falls over everyone.

Reporters recoil internally and give a shiver. They look away from the windows. One will invariably spit, “That should be illegal.”

Visually, in terms of repulsiveness, there is little difference between the tactics of the abortion protesters and those of the federal government. In fact, the only difference is that the government doctored its pictures.

And you paid for them.

Can a state ban images on cig packs?

2011-06-21T19:28:00.002-05:00

http://www.salon.com/news/tobacco_industry/?story=/news/david_sirota/2011/06/21/tennessee_fda_antismoking

Tennessee recently banned images that cause "emotional distress."

Among all the recent efforts to criminalize free speech, Tennessee's Legislature gets the top award for sheer chutzpah. As Ars Technica reports, the state's governor, Bill Haslam, this month signed a bill making it a crime to "transmit or display an image" that is likely to "frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress" to anyone who sees it. Importantly, Ars notes that "if a court decides you 'should have known' that an image [would] be upsetting to someone who sees it, you could face months in prison and thousands of dollars in fines."

While the whole statute stands on weak constitutional grounds, that last nuance seems particularly shaky -- and dangerous. That's because of the special jurisprudential protections granted to core political speech -- much of which is consciously intended to upset those who are exposed to it. Indeed, you may be upset by that antiabortion group mailer showing a photo of a fetus, or you may be upset by the antiwar ad showing graphic images of battlefield violence, but that's constitutionally protected speech (as is, by the way, your right to subsequently express your outrage at the images).

At least some Tennessee lawmakers who support the statute would no doubt insist that those examples have a "legitimate purpose," which would exempt them from punishment. However, as Iowa State Daily columnist Claire Vriezen astutely points out, "the phrase 'legitimate purpose' is open to interpretation." That "interpretation" part is no theoretical problem -- it's one that could hit courts very soon, thanks to Tuesday's tobacco-related announcement by the Food and Drug Administration.

Tennessee is a major tobacco-producing state, which suggests there will be no small number of Tennesseans who may feel "frightened, intimidated or emotionally distressed" by new FDA-mandated warning ads that, according to the Associated Press, "depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use." These ads, announced Tuesday, include images of "rotting and diseased teeth and gums and a man with a tracheotomy smoking" after a World Health Organization survey found more than 25 percent of foreign smokers said such graphic labels led them to consider quitting. (You can view all nine warning labels below).

The ads, in other words, pose a genuine threat to a major Tennessee industry that has lots of eager-to-litigate lawyers and lots of clout with politicians. Now, thanks to Tennessee's criminalization of free speech, that industry can wield a new statutory weapon against the speech it doesn't like. In a tobacco-state court composed of tobacco-state judges and tobacco-state jurors, this industry could realistically hope that such ads would be ruled illegitimate -- and further, that those who disseminate the ads are criminals. By design, that would undoubtedly create both a chilling effect of self-censorship among tobacco distributors (convenience stores, vending machine owners, etc.), and an innovative legal rationale for the industry to ignore the FDA's new warning-label mandate.

Of course, this all remains hypothetical right now. Big Tobacco, in fact, may not even be interested in such a court case, fearing that any extra attention to the FDA ads will only serve to educate more Americans about the negative health effects of smoking. But that's not the point, because if it's not the tobacco industry that attempts to hijack government censorship power then it will certainly be another industry -- as has already happened in other states including Iowa, Florida, Ohio and Minnesota, where agribusiness has recently been trying to statutorily bar revelations about factory farms. In all of these cases, the bottom line remains the same: When the government criminalizes First Amendment expressions, all it is really doing is using state power to preference one set of voices over another.

By definition, that is the opposite of "freedom" and, when inevitably done for industry objectives, the hallmark of a Corporate Police State

FDA releases the new graphical images for USA cig packs

2011-06-21T11:23:00.003-05:00

Today is the day when the FDA released the graphic images for the USA packs. I hear these images are cartoon-like images. I dunno when the packs with images will hit the market. But I take it sometime this fall is when I'll see packs with the new images on them?

I think the images won't have any serious effect on the USA smoking rate. They might encourage more smokers to buy cigarette cases so they won't have to bother seeing the images. But most people who smoke already know about black lungs for instance.

It would actually be neat to see more women use cig cases. Cig cases used to be a lot more common to see among smoking ladies a few decades ago. I dunno if I want a cig case. I intend on ignoring the graphical images anyway. All I care about are the cigs IN the pack. Not what's on the OUTSIDE of the pack.

If a teen wants to smoke, he/she is going to. Regardless of what images are on the pack itself.

Nevads bar patrons can enjoy cigs with their meals

2011-06-19T18:08:00.003-05:00

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Bar patrons will soon be able to enjoy a cigarette with their meal while eating out in Nevada.

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a measure Friday allowing food service in adults-only bars and taverns.

The law also allows smoking and eating within family restaurants if the smoking area is physically enclosed.

FULL ARTICLE

HOC would loosen regulatory reins on Big Tobacco

2011-06-05T20:51:00.003-05:00

LINK TO EDITORIAL

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee this week approved an amendment that would seriously weaken a 2009 law that lets the Food and Drug Administration order changes in tobacco products in the interest of public health.

The action was roundly condemned by four of the nation's most reliable pro-health groups: the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association.

While the amendment to the Department of Agriculture funding bill would apply to all products regulated by the FDA, it would in particular weaken the bipartisan law, passed less than two years ago, that was aimed at protecting children from the tobacco industry. Among other things, it gave the FDA authority to prohibit adding flavorings and other ingredients to cigarettes that would make them more appealing to children.

If the amendment stands it would mean that the FDA could not stop tobacco companies from adding ingredients, such as sugar, that attract children, or that make it easier for children to become addicted or that make it harder for smokers to quit.

The amendment would restrict the kind of scientific evidence on which the FDA bases its orders. It would prevent the agency from considering the impact of an ingredient on consumer behavior or whether an ingredient increases tobacco use by children.

The amendment's author, Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said it was not aimed specifically at tobacco regulation. But the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids noted that the 29 committee members who voted for the amendment took a total of $289,927 from tobacco industry PACs over the past three election cycles, compared with just $10,000 taken by the 20 who voted against it. Oklahoma Fourth District Rep. Tom Cole voted for the amendment.

The full House of Representatives should defeat this egregious amendment which serves to loosen the reins on the tobacco companies.

Preoperty Rights Newsletter

2011-06-05T11:13:00.000-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

June 3, 2011 - Issue #615

"I don't know how much education you need to be stupid."
- Roy Rowley

Cellphones 'possibly carcinogenic,' report suggests. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar. The agency is the cancer arm of the World Health Organization and the assessment now goes to WHO and national health agencies for possible guidance on cellphone use. The group classified cellphones in category 2B, meaning they are possibly carcinogenic to humans. Other substances in that category include the pesticide DDT and gasoline engine exhaust.
MORE Articles about cellphone bans.

From The Mailbag

CA: We need to remind the Governor of the State of California, Jerry Brown, that one of his campaign promises was to move government away from state control and back down to the local level. SB 575 would remove the current exemptions and the option of local control, and make all laws the same statewide - removing the decision making process from local jurisdictions.

MI: Undercover Investigation: Smoking Ban Violators. Several Bars Ignore Michigan Smoking Laws. When our hidden team asked a one waitress if it was OK to smoke, she joked with us about a health department inspector, “If you see a lady with a clipboard walk in, just stash the ash tray,” she said.

NY: For months, Ron Melendi has been bludgeoning New York State legislators and the Governor’s office with statistics that show how the state’s onerous tobacco taxes have joined with federal taxes to drive these small businesses to the brink of destruction. Now, to put a ‘face’ to that data, he’s touring the state, creating a video documentary of professional tobacconists that he will present to lawmakers by mid-June in support of current bills that would cap the premium cigar tax at $1 per stick.

USA: Clara Kaszubowski gets best of neighborly deal by smoking, drinking, gaming till 103 years old. And... Robert Vannatter, 90 years old, with two Bronze Stars for heroism, is to be knighted by France.
USA: Watch the video: Smokeman Song.

Australia: Looking at total ban in 10-15 years. "The government should consider issuing smokers with a licence to smoke, which would involve them passing a test, not dissimilar to a driving test," Chapman said. "They would get a swipe card with their photo on it and … they could say how much they wanted to smoke a day. If it was 10 cigarettes a day you'd get a category one license...

UK: Fiery Nouveau Flamenco band lights up the world's hottest cigars auction on Independence Day in London.

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I agree with the theme of this editorial

2011-06-04T21:58:00.003-05:00

Of course Bloomnerd killed NYC. I'm just surprised the entire nation hasn't followed in his footsteps as Health Nazis.

***********************************************
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100090456/michael-bloomberg-the-man-who-killed-new-york/

Michael Bloomberg: the man who killed New York
By Brendan O'Neill
Politics
Last updated: June 2nd, 2011
I have written in the Spectator this week about the muzzling of New York
City by its miserabilist Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and his joy-killing
sidekick and health commissioner, Thomas Farley. These two health freaks are
zapping the spirit from what Walt Whitman described as a “mad, mettlesome,
extravagant city” by instituting all sorts of lifestyle-related rules and
regulations:

If you had to think of one city on Earth where the rulers should not try to
impose a standard of ‘good behaviour’, it would surely be New York. Who in
their right mind would seek to sanitise this concrete jungle, to sedate the
city that never sleeps, to demand conformism and obedience from the
inhabitants of a place which, in the words of a popular tourist T-shirt, is
known as ‘New York F**kin’ City?

You’d be surprised. New York is currently governed by a gaggle of
health-obsessed bigwigs who believe they have a duty to grab New Yorkers by
the scruffs of their outsized necks and drag them towards lives of
bicycle-riding, non-smoking, booze-avoiding, fruit-snacking conformity. City
Hall, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is awash with that new breed of
psycho-politician known as the ‘nudger’, who believes that he has the right
to use psychological techniques and brute censorship to manipulate and
‘improve’ human behaviour…

For me, the most striking thing is the lack of criticism of Bloomberg’s
antics. Liberal commentators, especially at that bible of East Coast
righteousness the New York Times, have either turned a blind eye to his
authoritarian bans on smoking, fatty foods and soda pop, or have cheered
them on. Where liberals were often scathing in their attacks on former mayor
Rudolph Giuliani’s intemperate policing of Central Park and late-night bars
and strip joints, they have raised barely a peep about Bloomberg’s policing
of lifestyle.

This rather confirms that there is a stifling conformism today in relation
to state intrusions into personal health. Where those who fancy themselves
as edgy, state-suspicious liberals are more than happy to lambast old-style
authoritarianism, they have little to say about the new-fangled state
nudging of the allegedly fat, feckless masses towards lives of thinness and
sobriety. That’s a shame because, if anything, the Bloombergers’
pyscho-nudging of the populace, their desire actually to remould the
citizenry, is far more pernicious than anything Giuliani got up to.
Tags: authoritarianism, Michael Bloomberg, New York, Nudge, Spectator

Property Rights Newsletter

2011-05-31T18:08:00.000-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

May 27, 2011 - Issue #614

"With the pride of the artist, you must blow against the walls of
every power that exists the small trumpet of your defiance."
- Norman Mailer.

Bill would snuff out Nevada's smoking ban in bars. Lawmakers have introduced a surprise bill to lift the ban on smoking in bars that serve food, a move that might have generated more buzz Friday night if many taverns weren't already breaking the law. Inside the Tap House in Las Vegas, which cheerfully declares itself "smoker friendly!" on its façade, smokers and nonsmokers already sit side-by-side near patrons eating dinner. Despite smokers' nonchalance, the lawmakers' action drew immediate condemnation from health advocates and applause from the tavern industry.

Hookah lounges thriving, three years after smoking ban. Chicago-area hookah lounges are hotter than ever, packing in a new crop of aficionados to puff on ancient communal water pipes. Employing a loophole that allows patrons to light up inside tobacco shops, dozens of the exotic smoking dens have sprung up in the city and suburbs since the Smoke Free Illinois Act became law in 2008, much to the frustration of some health officials.

Defiance

NY: JOIN C.L.A.S.H. for a "SMOKE-IN THE PARK" May 28th, 2011, 2:00 On the Boardwalk at Brighton 6th Street, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.
NY: Watch the video: The smoking storm troopers are here.
NY: New York Smokes: History in Photos.

HI: Watch the video: Kawika Crowley at Tea Party 2011. The tax tsunami warning.

UK: Lobby your MP, House of Commons, June 29, 2011. MPs from the three main political parties have joined forces to support a campaign to change the smoking ban.

Marine Sgt Paul Boothroyd Takes Sniper Round To The Head;
Smokes A Cigarette 15 Minutes Later.

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Distinctive colors on pack send "Less harmful cigs" message to customers

2011-05-28T18:43:00.002-05:00

Tobacco companies work around new law (which prohibits putting "Light," "Ultra Light" and "Medium" on packs/cartons/ads) by using distinctive pack colors to send the message "This pack of cigs is less harmful than cigs in dark red/dark menthol green packs."

CLICK HERE to read online article on this topic.

NY smokers defy smoking ban in park

2011-05-24T22:59:00.001-05:00

"As long as I pay my taxes, I should be able to smoke where I want," said Chris McGiveney, who smoked and read the paper at the Herald Square pedestrian plaza yesterday. "Tell Bloomberg to pay my taxes, then I'll listen."

NY: What smoking ban? Just try and stop us!

2011-05-22T20:27:00.003-05:00

LINK TO PAGE

I like it when someone in the media calls smokers "addicts." I guess kids who love candy and alcoholics aint "addicts" too?
**********************************

No butts about it: Beginning today, it is illegal to smoke in any of the city’s public parks, beaches, boardwalks and promenades.

But some New Yorkers say they’re simply going to ignore the new law.

“I sort of don’t obey the laws — so I’ll smoke anyways,” East Village resident Jessica Kim, 23, told Metro.

“Sometimes, paying $50 is worth that one drag of a cigarette,” said Chazz Awakirobon, 33, a dishwasher who lives in the East Village. There’s a $50 fine for lighting up in any of the aforementioned locales.

Other smokers said they’ll just migrate to Brooklyn Bridge or East River state parks, where it is still legal to smoke. All seven state parks within the city’s limits are exempt from the ban.

“$50 is a lot of money. That’s like three packs of cigarettes,” said Brooklyn resident Tyrell Dougeherty, 27. “I will definitely go to those state parks.”

But civilly disobedient smokers may be in luck: The NYPD is leaving enforcement of the new ban up to the Parks Department, which doesn’t appear to be cracking down anytime soon.

“The new smoking ban is a quality-of-life rule that is primarily self-enforcing,” Parks Department spokeswoman Vicki Karp said. “We’re counting on all New Yorkers to comply just as they do with other quality-of-life rules.”

Protest planned

Audrey Silk, leader of a smoker advocacy group New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, is organizing a “Smoke-in the park” on May 28, where a crowd is expected to puff away on the Brighton Beach boardwalk in protest of the ban. “This law will be paid the respect it deserves,” Silk vowed.

Safe havens

Don’t worry, addicts. You can still smoke in these parks:

» Roberto Clemente State Park
» Riverbank State Park
» Gantry Plaza State Park
» Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park (Brooklyn Bridge Park)
» East River State Park
» Bayswater Point State Park
» Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve

Marlboro is better than Newport in lots of ways

2011-05-22T19:08:00.004-05:00

I don't have any hard feelings for Newports. They were the first-ever menthols I smoked in my life. And Newport was the primary brand I smoked within the past decade. I'll still smoke a few of those cigs when I spend time in public in particular.

Some Blacks call Marlboros a "White brand." And I know for a fact most Black cig smokers refuse to smoke any brand other than Newports.

Well, I think enjoying a brand is more important than whether or not it's a white brand or a black brand. What's the point of ANYONE smoking if you hate the brand's taste or strength? I can understand why most Black smokers prefer ports. Those are the cheapest premium menthols on the market. Based on the cost of a pack, a bro or sista might as well buy a port pack instead of a Kool or Benson and Hedges Menthol pack.

But there are also smokers who buy port packs from street dealers. Those dealers are making lots of money from bootlegging packs thanks to the politicians raising taxes. I bet even with my right to buy cigs online taken away, Big Daddy is STILL losing taz money with smokers buying packs from underground dealers.

Even when I smoked Newports daily, I NEVER bought a pack from a bro in the streets. No need to. Not when I can get a Newport pack in Indiana for only $5.50 (with the sales tax included). A port pack is now about $5.63. But that's still cheap compared to $7.50-$10 in/around Chicago.

Marlboro Menthol Lights are cheaper than Newports. When I can save up to $10 off of a carton or $1 off per pack in Indiana. But even without those savings, a Marlboro carton is still a buck cheaper than a Newport carton over there (if I assume I don't use ANY cig coupons as well).

2 promotional Marlboro Menthol Light cartons in Indiana is about $90 total with tax included., That's $10 less than the price of a Chicago carton for Marbs AND ports. I can get an extra carton for my money next door in the Hoosier state. And since I'd essentially save an extra $20, I could buy 3 extra packs of the Marlboro regular lights or 3 port packs. So in reality, I can get 2 promo Marb cartons plus 3 extra Marb packs for the same amount of money I'd spend on 2 Marb cartons alone WITHOUT the promo savings.

Missouri has better cig prices than Indiana. But unfortunately, I don't live near Missouri. But I still live near a state where the prices are similar to the old prices from online smoke shops.

I'm sure a lotta Chicago area smokers still drive outta state to buy cigs. But the high gasoline prices makes up for saving money on cigs for some smokers. I know even if I did drive, spending 70 bucks on gas in order to make a roundtrip to Indiana in order to buy 2 cartons wouldn't be worth it. Since when I include gas costs, those 2 Marlboro Light cartons would cost me $160 if I pretend the 2 cartons are promo cartons.

If I'm gonna essentially spend $170 to buy 2 cartons in Indiana, I'd be better off saving money on gas and I might as well buy 2 Marlboro cartons around the corner for $156. A carton aint 100 bucks in the Chicago burbs (but they still more than 50-55 bucks each) But I'm lucky I don't have to worry about buying gasoline period.

A smokers rights org in the NY-based news

2011-05-21T23:41:00.001-05:00

Audrey Silk and C.L.A.S.H. is in the news. I see NYC is joining the OUTDOOR smoking ban club. And I bet the outdoor ban will face opposition. CLASH is organizing a smoke-in. Unfortunately, I can't attend it.

C.L.A.S.H. in the news

Doctors can successfully help a teen stop smoking?

2011-05-21T21:43:00.005-05:00

If a doctor can convince a teen to quit smoking by simply talk to the teen about smoking. CNN is the source of this topic. You can watch a clip on doctors talking ot teens and convincing em to quit smoking by CLICKING HERE.

All doctors are different. Some doctors are hardcore antismokers. I even remember a doc I saw around 10 years ago who said to me: "If you can afford to buy a pack of cigs, then you can afford your own prescriptions."

Well, even based on a modern price for a pack, I bet most people would LOVE the idea of paying only 10 bucks per prescription! Medicine is a LOT more expensive than even a $12 cig pack in NYC.

But that doctor who I talked to shouldn't have assumed I buy my cigs in or around Chicago. I notice a lotta folks assume that if I have a pack of cigs, then I must be filthy rich. But that's not true in my case.

If a doctor can convince a teen to quit smoking by simply talking to the teen, then I hope that same doctor can convince teens to don't fall in love with eating fast food daily.

Info on cig taxes in the US

2011-05-21T19:36:00.002-05:00

NY has the highest state tax for cigs in the nation at $4. per pack. Missouri has the lowest state tax at 17 cents per pack.

You can view the state cig tax list by CLICKING HERE.

NYC is the #1 city in the nation with the highest state/local cig taxes combined (excluding sales taxes) at $5.85 per pack. Chicago is the #2 city at $3.66 per pack. I find it interesting there are multiple cities within the Chicago area in the Top 10 range of THIS LIST. But it's also noteworthy Evanston, Chicago, Rosemont, and Cicero are the only IL towns on the list of the highest state-local combined cig taxes at all.

$5.85 in taxes for NYC is more than the total cost of a Marlboro pack at a smoke shop in Hammond, IN. I can get a pack of Marlboro Lights in that shop for only $5.54 with the 40-cent sales tax included already in the price!

CLICK HERE for the highest state-local combined cig taxes in the nation. This list excludes sale taxes.

New look for my blog

2011-05-21T12:37:00.003-05:00

As you can tell, I changed the look of my blog. And I can see I'm able to get the entire property rights newsletter to appear on my page (instead of only half of it appearing). Of course, there's still the link off of to the right if you wanna read any previous property rights newsletters at smokersclubinc.com

My new primary brand is Marlboro Lights. Marlboro Menthol Lights taste good. And I wouldn't mind buying a promo carton of ML Menthols where I'd save $10 off of those Marlboro cartons. But Marlboro Gold Lights would be my actual first choice.

I know "Lights" are now "Golds." And ULs are now called "Silvers" on the packs. But I'll keep calling Marlboro Golds "Marlboro Lights" til the day I die, thank you. Calling Marlboro Light Menthols "Marlboro Gold Menthols" sounds weird anyway. Since the REAL Marlboro Golds are in the actual Marlboro pack with gold on it, duh!

A Marlboro promotional carton in Indiana is only $45 each with the tax included. I'm more likely to get promo cartons with ML menthols and Marb 27s. Newport 100s still make a good occassional menthol smoke for me. But ML menthols got a betta minty taste to me, ML menthols are cheaper than Newports, and it's easier for me to even chainsmoke 6-8 Marb 27s than Newports.

My new list of preferred brands when it comes to buying cigs:

1. Marlboro Lights
2. Marlboro Menthol Lights
3. Marlboro 27's
4. Newport 100s (only one carton at a time for this brand, and if I have Newport coupons. Otherwise, it's all MLs)

Property Rights Newsletter

2011-05-21T11:25:00.002-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

May 20, 2011 - Issue #613

"If you, with all the taxes you paid,
paved that road in front of your house,
that everyone in town gets to drive on...
you might be a smoker."
- Samantha Phillipe

Shame. By Frank Davis. I think that a day will come when politicians and pundits will recognise the irreparable harm that has been done, and belatedly act to prevent further harm. They’ll quietly lift or relax the ban that they once so gaily put in place. And that will mark the end of the war on smoking, and with luck of lifestyle engineering as well. The costs will have proved too great, and the benefits too small. And they will wonder why they ever thought it might be worth it. They will wonder how they could have been so blind. They will wonder what kind of madness afflicted them.

Australia Cigarettes poised for killer price cut. The tobacco industry is threatening to flood Australia with half-price cigarettes to fight plain packaging laws. It is also threatening to seek billions of dollars in compensation from the Federal Government. The chief executive of British American Tobacco - which makes popular brands Winfield and Benson & Hedges and sells about 22 billion cigarettes in Australia each year - yesterday said prices could be slashed in half as tobacco giants try to compete with black-market imports.
Beach smoking ban stretches west. Smoking is set to be banned on every Melbourne beach from Altona to Elwood, after Hobsons Bay Council became the third Victorian municipality to ban beachgoers from lighting up. The move comes as the tobacco industry warns the price of cigarettes in Australia could be halved if a federal government proposal to introduce plain packaging is successful. It is expected the new law will be in place before summer, with the council needing to prepare a community impact statement and accept submissions before it is voted on again.

From The Mailbag

CA: West Hollywood Election: Victors, Winners & Losers. Duran had already been charting an independent course, refusing to vote for the appointment of Lindsey Horvath and then vigorously opposing Abbe Land’s ill conceived smoking ban in commercial outdoor patios, which enraged bar and restaurant owners along Santa Monica and the Sunset Strip.

CA: Senate Bill 332, Impact not lessened by fact that it depends on the whims of the bldg owner. The bill, passed the Senate just this week with an overwhelming 33-2 vote. The current version, now heads to the Assembly.

GA: DeKalb County Outdoor Smoking Ban to Blow Away Business. "Customers can choose the businesses they patronize just as workers can choose where they work," said Chris McCalla, legislative director for the IPCPR, based in Columbus, Georgia. "They don’t need government passing convoluted laws telling them where to shop or work."

IL: Vacation home's $300 smoking fine crosses the line. Calling her fee a "fine" won't disguise the fact that it's a predetermined price for damage, regardless of its extent. Incidentally, a true fine can be imposed only by a government entity: It is punishment for violating a health or safety law.

MA: Teen Turns Violent After Being Asked Not To Light A Cigarette at Forest Hills T. The dispute led to both the would-be smoker and her sister being arrested after transit police said the pair slapped, pushed and kicked them.

MD: A resolution to adopt a proposed Montgomery County, Maryland Board of Health smoking ban regulation will be the subject of a public hearing June 23 by the Health and Human Services Committee of the County Council.

Iraq: Bogged Down on Big Issues, Iraq Takes Aim at Smoking. Following the lead of New York, London, Paris and scores of other Western cities, Iraqi lawmakers are now trying to push smoking to the margins of public life here, to the frustration of many of their constituents. Baraa Ghazi, 27, offered a broader pronouncement as he took a languid drag. “This,” he said, “is freedom.”

UK: "Evidence Review" without evidence! The long awaited review of the smoking ban has arrived but no one who reads this report in an open-minded way will be taken in by it as it is riddled with basic errors. Linda Bauld has proven nothing with this report apart from the fact that she is a true anti tobacco activist.

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Street dealers are more interested in selling cigs instead of drugs

2011-05-18T10:54:00.001-05:00

Raising the price of cigs every 3-6 months is not gonna make every smoker quit. Making tobacco illegal will. The only thing a $12 price for a cig pack is gonna do is make selling cigs the new crime profession instead of selling drugs. Bootleggers can make more moolah off of selling packs than selling a DVD movie for only $2. You may not hear it on the news since the media turns a deaf ear to this subject. But I bet the number of cig heists have gone up nationwide since last year.

CA: Increase in violence within hospital linked to smoking ban

2011-05-14T20:47:00.004-05:00

ARTICLE LINK

NAPA, Calif. -- As the number of violent attacks escalates at the Napa State Hospital, some have linked it to a ban on cigarettes inside the hospital. Others are highly critical of this idea. Over the years, violence at Napa State Hospital has been well documented.The death of hospital employee Donna Gross last October brought to light the rise in violence among patients and employees.The alleged killer of Donna Gross is patient Jess Massey. A man who, according to records, has a criminal history of armed robbery, sexual assault, and murder. Some patients at Napa State Hospital believe they know why Donna was targeted."If you talk about the Jess Massey thing, it's almost a unanimous consensus.

He killed her over tobacco," said Michael, a hospital patient. Tobacco has been banned from campus since July 2008. Staff and patients say a single cigarette can sell for about $7. A pack of cigarettes can go for $150. "There has always been a tobacco trade here for the last 20 something years that I've been here. It's just gotten more expensive because it’s harder to get in," said registered nurse Sharon Sanguinetti.

Since the campus has been tobacco free, patient on staff assaults have nearly quadrupled. From September 2008 to February 2009 there have been 75 reported assaults. In 2010, there were 287 assaults. The Department of Mental Health said the rise in assaults is not tied to tobacco.They said the increase I attacks stemmed from them changing the way data was collected and reported in 2009. That change included how
aggression was defined and that change could have led to an increase in the number of reports.

IL Mulls Smoking Ban Loophole on Casinos

2011-05-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

LINK TO PAGE

This is a multi-page article.

Bin Laden is a dead antismoker

2011-05-10T11:24:00.003-05:00

It sounds like Bin Laden was not only a terrorist. But he used to be an antismoker. Well it's good he's dead. Because antismokers are not human beings to me. They're monsters who don't have the words "Freedom" and "Choice" in their dictionaries. At least Bin Laden can say SHS never killed him. A bullet, not cig smoke, wasted him.

Property Rights Newsletter

2011-05-06T20:56:00.000-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter May 6, 2011 - Issue #611 "Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people." - Charlie Chaplin
Osama bin Laden banned smoking in compound. Osama bin Laden's hatred of western decadence is well documented, but according to villagers close to where he was shot dead earlier this week, it seems he included smoking as one of its vices. Shopkeepers where two of his close lieutenants did the bin Laden family shopping said they regularly bought one or two single cigarettes and smoked them immediately because they could not smoke them in their compound. The apparent ban on smoking is in line with a Taliban ruling that while taking snuff is permissible, smoking tobacco is "haram" or forbidden by Islam. Arshad Khan, described as a "fat" but polite and friendly man in his mid-thirties, and his younger thinner brother Tariq, regularly visited a row of poorly-stocked shops a few hundred yards from their compound to buy eggs, salt, milk and sweets for up to seven children in the compound. The two brothers are believed to have been killed along with bin Laden in the US raid on their compound in Pakistan on Monday. One of them, Arshad, is said to have been the trusted courier who unwittingly led American intelligence officials to discover bin Laden's hiding police after an eleven year search. But according to local shopkeepers they were reserved, polite, generous and enjoyed a gossip and a furtive cigarette. "They were good people. They were generous. They liked to mix with people and gossip," said tailor Yasir Khan, 28. AND: Marijuana Crop Found Near Osama Bin Laden's Pakistan Compound.
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Smoking Ban snuffed out in Macon

2011-05-05T12:00:00.003-05:00

LINK TO PAGE

Posted on Wed, May. 04, 2011

Smoking ban snuffed out as Macon council fails to overturn veto

By JIM GAINES

Two weeks of public back-and-forth and a wave of public comments about tighter smoking regulations in Macon weren’t enough to shift a single vote among City Council members.

Tuesday’s 9-6 decision was one vote shy of the 10 needed to override Mayor Robert Reichert’s veto of a smoking ordinance, falling in the same 9-6 margin as its initial passage April 19.

The vote means the smoking ban that would have prevented anyone from lighting up in various places, including Macon’s bars, won’t take effect later this year after all.

Council members signaled Monday that they would try to override Reichert’s veto, but no new arguments emerged Tuesday night despite half a dozen speeches from the public and a half-hour of debate among council members themselves.

Facing a packed council chamber, including a contingent holding “Breathe Easy Macon” signs in support of the smoking ordinance, Council President Miriam Paris limited public speakers to three who supported the measure and three who were against it.

The effort to override the veto headed the council’s agenda, and in a pre-council meeting Councilman Mike Cranford noted that according to the usual order, that vote would come before members of the public were allowed to address council -- and most of the intended speakers came to talk about just that subject.

Interim City Attorney Martha Welsh said the council could rearrange that, but Councilman Henry Ficklin disagreed. Though the arrangement was unfortunate, the council should stick to its usual rules no matter what, he said.

When Cranford moved in the actual council meeting to let the public speak before the smoking vote, only Ficklin opposed doing so.

Proponents of the new rules, which essentially would have banned smoking inside all bars and restaurants, plus at some outdoor locations such as playgrounds and amphitheaters, argued that it was a question of public health.

Dave Harvey, district health director for the Macon-Bibb County Health Department and a retired pediatrician, likened the restrictions to gun control laws.

“We’re not saying you shouldn’t have (a gun). We’re saying be careful where you shoot,” he said.

Opponents of the ordinance, such as Element nightclub owner Philip Sinclair, dismissed health arguments as a matter of individual choice and said the law would hurt his business, pushing bar customers to establishments outside city limits.

“I believe y’all are being completely fiscally irresponsible if y’all override the mayor’s veto,” Sinclair said.

When it came time for council members to speak, Ficklin said he backs anti-smoking measures but thinks the public didn’t have time to comment on this ordinance.

“I have no issue with the smoking ban, but what I do have an issue with is the process,” he said.

Cranford said he’s owned many businesses including bars, restaurants and a hotel, and that most council members can’t say they’ve dealt with “government bull” imposed on businesspeople.

“Small business is a minority, and if you’ve ever been part of a minority that couldn’t or wouldn’t be heard, you know what I’m talking about,” he said.

Bar and restaurant owners have threatened to sue the city if the ordinance passes, he said. The rules would be “reasonable” if done in conjunction with Bibb County, thus preventing customers from switching their business to nearby smoking establishments, Cranford said.

Councilwoman Beverly Blake asked colleagues to go ahead and override the veto, saying its backers were willing to hold two public meetings in the next 60 days to get public input for “fine-tuning” the ordinance before it went into effect Sept. 1.

Councilman Charles Jones scoffed at that, saying it was putting the cart before the horse to pass something and seek to fix it later; but Councilwoman Elaine Lucas accused opponents of foot-dragging by calling for joint action with Bibb County.

“I can smell a stall ... and you can, too,” she said.

After more in the same vein, Ficklin called for a vote. He, Cranford, Jones, Ed DeFore, James Timley and Virgil Watkins voted to uphold the mayor’s veto.

Council members Blake, Lauren Benedict, Nancy White, Tom Ellington, Paris, Larry Schlesinger, Lonnie Miley, Lucas and Rick Hutto voted to override the veto. Although that group of council members was in the majority, that left ordinance supporters one vote short of the two-thirds council majority to override a mayoral veto.

“The mayor’s veto is sustained,” Paris said.

Tobacco-derived compound prevents memory loss in Alzheimer's Disease Mice

2011-05-03T19:12:00.004-05:00

...

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/uosf-tcp042711.php

Tobacco-derived compound prevents memory loss in Alzheimer's disease mice

VA-USF study finds cotinine reduces the brain plaques associated with dementia

Tampa, FL (For immediate release) -- Cotinine, a compound derived from tobacco, reduced plaques associated with dementia and prevented memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, a study led by researchers at Bay Pines VA Healthcare System and the University of South Florida found.

The findings are reported online in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease in advance of print publication.

"We found a compound that protects neurons, prevents the progression of Alzheimer's disease pathology, enhances memory and has been shown to be safe," said Valentina Echeverria, PhD, a scientist at Bay Pines VA Healthcare System and an assistant professor of Molecular Medicine at USF Health. "It looks like cotinine acts on several aspects of Alzheimer's pathology in the mouse model. That, combined with the drug's good safety profile in humans, makes it a very attractive potential therapy for Alzheimer's disease."

While the current drugs for Alzheimer's may help delay the onset of symptoms, none halt or reverse the processes of Alzheimer's disease. In addition, existing drugs may have undesirable side effects.

Some epidemiological studies showed that people who smoke tend to have lower incidences of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Studies have widely attributed this apparently beneficial effect to nicotine, which has been reported to improve memory and reduce Alzheimer's-like plaques in mice. However, nicotine's harmful cardiovascular effects and addictive properties make the compound a less than ideal drug candidate for neurodegenerative diseases.

The Bay Pines VA/USF team decided to look at the effects of cotinine, the major byproduct of nicotine metabolism, in Alzheimer's disease mice. Cotinine is nontoxic and longer lasting than nicotine. Furthermore, its safety has already been demonstrated in human trials evaluating cotinine's potential to relieve tobacco withdrawal symptoms.

The researchers administered cotinine daily for five months to young adult (2-month-old) mice genetically altered to develop memory problems mimicking Alzheimer's disease as they aged. At the end of the five-month study, the Alzheimer's mice treated with cotinine performed better on tasks measuring their working memory and thinking skills than untreated Alzheimer's control mice. Long-term cotinine treatment appeared to provide the Alzheimer's mice complete protection from spatial memory impairment; their performance in this area of testing was identical to that of normal mice without dementia.

The brains of Alzheimer's mice treated with cotinine showed a 26-percent reduction in deposits of amyloid plaques, which are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Cotinine also inhibited the accumulation of the amyloid peptide oligomers – a predecessor of senile plaques – in the brains of these mice. Furthermore, the researchers discovered that cotinine stimulated the signaling factor Akt, which promotes the survival of neurons and enhances attention and memory.

Senile plaques likely had not yet formed or were just beginning to accumulate in the brains of the young adult mice when long-term cotinine treatment was started. The researchers suggest that "cotinine may be useful in preventing cognitive deterioration when administered to individuals not yet exhibiting Alzheimer's disease cognitive impairment or those with mild cognitive impairment at early stages of the disease."

The researchers are seeking additional support for a pilot clinical trial to investigate cotinine's effectiveness in preventing progression to Alzheimer's dementia in patients with mild cognitive impairment, Echeverria said.

The VA-USF team is also studying the potential of the tobacco-derived compound to relieve fear-induced anxiety and help blunt traumatic memories in mouse models of post-traumatic stress disorder.

###

Study co-authors included researchers from the University of Miami, the University of Manchester (UK), Boston College, and Saitama Medical Center and Saitama Medical University (Japan). The study was supported in part by awards from the Florida Department of Health's James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program, the Alzheimer's Association and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Publication citation:

"Cotinine Reduces Amyloid-β Aggregation and Improves Memory in Alzheimer's Disease Mice," Valentina Echeverria, Ross Zeitlin, Sarah Burgess, Sagar Patel, Arghya Barman, Garima Thakur, Magorzota Mamcarz, Li Wang, David B. Sattelle, Daniel A. Kirschner, Takashi Mori, Roger M. LeBlanc, Rajeev Prabhakar and Gary W. Arendash, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 24 (4) 2011. DOI: 10.3233/JAD-2011-102136, IOS Press.

- About USF Health -

USF Health (www.health.usf.edu) is dedicated to creating a model of health care based on understanding the full spectrum of health. It includes the University of South Florida's colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health and Pharmacy, the School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; and the USF Physician's Group. Ranked 34th in federal research expenditures for public universities by the National Science Foundation, the University of South Florida is a high impact global research university.

- About the VA Research and Development Program -

For more than 65 years, the Veterans Affairs (VA) Research and Development program has been improving veterans' lives through innovation and discovery. The VA Research program, unique in that it is the only research program focused wholly on conducting groundbreaking research to meet the full spectrum of veterans' medical needs, benefits from being part of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)—an integrated, national health care system with a state-of-the-art electronic health record. Through dynamic combination, the VA Research program is able to promote the quick translation of research findings into advancements in health care for veterans and all Americans.

- About the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (JAD) -

The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (http://www.j-alz.com) is an international multidisciplinary journal to facilitate progress in understanding the etiology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, genetics, behavior, treatment and psychology of Alzheimer's disease. The journal publishes research reports, reviews, short communications, book reviews, and letters-to-the-editor. Groundbreaking research that has appeared in the journal includes novel therapeutic targets, mechanisms of disease and clinical trial outcomes. The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease has an Impact Factor of 3.82 according to Thomson Reuters' 2010 edition of Journal Citation Reports. It is ranked #19 on the Index Copernicus Top 100 Journal List. The Journal is published by IOS Press (www.iospress.com).

SHS has direct impact on brain

2011-05-02T22:25:00.000-05:00

Exposure to secondhand smoke, such as a person can get by riding in an enclosed car while someone else smokes, has a direct, measurable impact on the brain — and the effect is similar to what happens in the brain of the person doing the smoking. In fact, exposure to this secondhand smoke evokes cravings among smokers, according to a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The study, published today in Archives of General Psychiatry, used positron emission tomography (PET) to demonstrate that one hour of secondhand smoke in an enclosed space results in enough nicotine reaching the brain to bind receptors that are normally targeted by direct exposure to tobacco smoke. This happens in the brain of both smokers and non-smokers.

Previous research has shown that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the likelihood that children will become teenage smokers and makes it more difficult for adult smokers to quit. Such associations suggest that secondhand smoke acts on the brain to promote smoking behavior.

“These results show that even limited secondhand smoke exposure delivers enough nicotine to the brain to alter its function,” said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. “Chronic or severe exposure could result in even higher brain nicotine levels, which may explain why secondhand smoke exposure increases vulnerability to nicotine addiction.”

“This study gives concrete evidence to support policies that ban smoking in public places, particularly enclosed spaces and around children,” said Arthur Brody, M.D., of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and corresponding author for the article.

The Surgeon General's Report concluded in 2006 that secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and many serious health conditions in children, including sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory infections, and more severe asthma. According to the CDC, almost 50,000 deaths per year can be attributed to secondhand smoke. For more information or for resources to help quit smoking, go to http://www.nida.nih.gov/DrugPages/Nicotine.html.

The study can be found online at: http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/.

How I got involved in smokers rights

2011-05-02T19:27:00.003-05:00

(This is one of my first posts on here. But I'm bumping this up for new visitors.)

I first learned of smoking being a right when I heard about the NYC smoking ban. I knew CA was so antismoking back then. But I didn't expect anti poison-anda to spread across the nation. But I underestimated the power of their poison. Folks will believe ANYTHING antis say. And the antis' main goal is to have a tobacco-free USA in the long term.

Antis have no right telling me and other smokers how to live. If I have the right to live in America, and if America expects me to pay taxes, then I'm gonna smoke in America. And I definitely didn't like the idea of being forced to smoke outside. That's similar to someone pushing me around for just being an American if I lived in the old days. Anyone who knows me knows I don't take being pushed around or pushed outside with my cig very lightly.

I will never understand why people can't smoke in taverns. Non-smokers are not forced to enter taverns. And they even find a way to bring kids into those joints. Last time I checked, kids are not allowed in bars. Smokers represent the majority of bar customers. So how can the owners and workers make money in a smoke-free bar? When there are hardly any customers in there to begin with? How can I even enjoy myself in public with a smoking ban? I might as well stay home if I can't smoke in restaurants, bars, and sport stadiums!

Well, I met a smoking activist from Illinois a few years ago who had similar thoughts on staying home if you can't smoke in places. And the rest is history so to speak. I'm helping out with Illinois Smokers Rights as well. Helping out with the actual offline group that is (and not the IL Smokers Rights site itself).

I notice I reflected on one thing that makes smokers similar to "us" in terms of how both groups are treated. But there are a lot more similarities. I don't need to hear the anti argument of "Smokers are not comparable with blacks because blacks can't change their looks. You can quit smoking to stop the 2nd class SMOKING treatment though. And I never heard of a person getting killed for smoking in public."

With all due respect, the similarity between smokers and us lies within the discrimination. A smoker doesn't have to get killed. A smoker can get denied a job not for race, religious, gender, or sexuality reasons. That smoker can get denied a job for....drumroll please....smoking a LEGAL product in the privacy of his/her home! Smokers even pay more for insurance than nonsmokers! If that's not discrimination, then the anti needs to wake up from dreaming.

If you don't believe me on smokers getting fired for smoking off of the job and smokers getting denied jobs period, then you need to keep up with the news in the smokers rights community.

A blog with sightings of smoking ladies

2011-05-02T12:06:00.004-05:00

If you're a smoking fetisher who's looking for a forum or blog dealing with sightings of smoking ladies in public, you can check out Mark's Smoke Blog. He posts a lot of his own sightings of smoking ladies.

MARK'S SMOKE BLOG

Thanks to smoking bans, it ain't common to see posts of smoking sightings on the net compared to say 10 years ago. When smoking forums used to be a lot more common online.

Cig smuggling is on the rise. So lower cig taxes to only a dime per pack?

2011-05-01T11:22:00.004-05:00

Most blog visitors think you'll see $15 as a pack price this year. I wouldn't be surprised if a pack is already $15 in some areas of the Northeastern states. However, some of those northeastern states are thinking of lowering their tobacco taxes.

I think (for example) NJ wants to lower the cig tax because that state is losing "cigarette business" to states with lower cig taxes within that same region. Smokers are driving to states with lower taxes, AND cigarette smuggling is more common as well. When smokers buy their packs from cig dealers in the streets, the hi-cig tax states are still losing money.

Buying a pack of Marlboros or Newports (or whateva brand) from a cig dealer underground is no different from smokers who used to buy cigs online. Obama made it possible for all states to stop losing cig tax money by signing the PACT Act. But that act still aint gonna stop cig smuggling. And it's not gonna stop someone from selling packs in the streets for only 5-6 bucks each.

The only way states in the northeast can stop losing cig tax money is if they lower the taxes to a lot more than juz a dime per pack. If a pack was only 2-3 bucks like it was in the good ol' days, then that would help put an end to cig smuggling.

And if cigs were more affordable offline in the 2000s, I bet online smoke shops (Indian smoke shops included) neva would have been successful. Why pay $20 (and shipping) for a carton online if I could get an offline carton at the same price?

My opinion on Red 100's

2011-05-01T11:01:00.004-05:00

After trying a newer pack of Red 100's, I used to say how they taste like a light cig sometimes.

Well, they don't taste like a light cig to me now. They taste like a full-flavor (FF). Although Red kings and Marlboro 27s both have a bigger FF taste.

The strength of Red 100s is more like medium to me. Not really "light cig" strength. But not too strong strength either.

But they certainly have a smoother taste than the Red kings. And the Red 100s definitely feel more like a cig compared to a ML 100 when I smoke em.

While I can understand the point of 100's being a better deal than kings based on the price of cigs in modern times, I believe a 100 really doesn't have that much more tobacco in em compared to a king. And in the case of Marlboros, the king-sized cigs are the ones with the type of big strangth I'm used to feeling.

I think it's interesting even ML kings have a lil more strength and better taste than ML 100's.

I can definitely see smoking Marlboro 100s more often if I ever become a 2ppd smoker. Cause smoking 100s would make better sense for someone who smokes heavily. I can smoke at least a pack per day. But 2ppd is tough to do when you take smoking bans into account. And I definitely aint stooping to smoking like 2 cigs at once. I'd rather chainsmoke 4-8 Marlboros than to smoke 2 at once.

I don't ever remember chaining 8 Newport 100s when they used to be my primary brand. I think the most Newports I ever chained was sometimes 4 ports. Those cigs are a lot more stronger than any FF Marlboro brand.

My first choice for a Marlboro carton would be a tie between Red kings and Marlboro 27's. Followed by ML kings.

I will say ML Gold 100s taste better than ML MENTHOL 100s. But all smokers are different from me. Newport is still the best menthol out there period.

20,000 hits on my blog

2011-04-30T12:22:00.003-05:00

I see my blog reached 20,000 hits on April 29, 2011. Reaching 20,000 hits in less than 4 years is nice for a blog with this topic. I'm hoping in May, this blog will get more exposure and even a bigger audience via THIS SITE with opposing views and health topics.

South Beach Smoke's Mother Day discounts

2011-04-30T12:04:00.001-05:00

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My take on Marlboros

2011-04-30T11:21:00.003-05:00

I've been enjoying Marlboros more often in recent weeks. Newport still makes a nice menthol. But I guess even as a smoker, there's still a time for a change of pace.

One difference between Marlboros and Newports is Marlboros burn faster. Some smokers think this is bad. But it's good to me since I can smoke the whole cig faster when I only have a 5-6 min smoke break. Even if I take multple pumps on a Newport, it still takes me 7-10 mins to smoke the whole cig.

Marlboros also have those in-store promos. Like $1 off of of each pack of Marlboro 27s. Marlboro 27s make a good alternative to smoking Camels. And the 27s have a nice caramel taste in em. Since those are a lesser-known Marlboro brand, it's probably harder to find the 27's. I can find em at a smoke shop near me. But not in most stores/gas stations.

To me, king-sized Marlboros have a stronger taste than their 100's siblings. Even Marlboro Lights kings taste a lil bit stronger to me than ML 100s. Menthol Marlboro Lights taste all right. But not as good as a ML Gold or a Newport for that matter.

I know I read a lotta negativity online about FSC Marlboros. But I can honestly say I see no difference in taste between Marlboro Reds and Marlboro Lights. They all taste the same as they did when I used to smoke Reds and MLs now and then in the non FSC days. But I'm more interested in making Marlboro my main brand now.

Random thoughts

2011-04-13T11:24:00.003-05:00

There are people out here who actually don't mind being around smokers. Unfortunately, those nonsmokers are hard to find. A nprmal nonsmoker doesn't care if anyone smokes around him/her, An ex-smoker or an antismoker likes to take it to the next level. They not only hate being around smokers. But they like to pressure smokers in their family to quit. Or even resort to violence when it comes to confronting certain smokera in public.

I see some people across the nation are starting to realize smoking bans in taverns are NOT for the majority. Do you honestly think a nonsmoker who drinks is gonna visit a tavern daily? That nonsmoker can save money by buying liquor at the store.

And lastly, for any e-cig smokers, the discount price list at South Beach Smoke has been updated on here. I heard recently a county in KY is thinking of banning e-cigs in public places.

An e-cig ban within Kentucky

2011-04-09T09:28:00.001-05:00

(From anotha smokers forum)
**********************************

This time, it's Madison County's(one county south of the one that includes Lexington, and includes the cities of Richmond and Berea) Board of Health doing this crap, and never mind that they already have an unnecessary indoor smoking ban for all places. It notes that Glasgow and Bardstown ridiculously included e-cigarettes in their smoking bans, and a KY college somewhere that's about to do the very absurd nonsense of including e-cigarettes in a 'smoke-free campus' rule. The new rule takes effect in 60 days.

Bet a very high number of businesses will thumb their nose around this useless e-cigarette ban anyway.....

Article:
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/04/07/1699293/madison-county-health-board-bans.html

Property Rights Newsletta

2011-04-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

April 8, 2011 - Issue #608

"No matter where you go, there you are."
- B. Banzai

Nudgers vs. Nannies. The new split divides those who believe the fat, feckless masses should be nudged toward better behavior and those who believe the fat, feckless masses should be nannied toward better behavior. Prime Minister David Cameron leads the nudgers. He has established a Behavioural Insight Team (BIT) to furnish him with ideas for how to nudge the “illogical” masses (its word) toward the lifestyle approved by Cameron’s government: nonsmoking, alcohol-free, slim, no fun. Public health officials and their cheerleaders in the media lead the nannies. They believe nudging isn’t enough and that, in the words of Catherine Bennett of The Observer, there will be “a surge in obesity and mass poisoning” by booze and junk food unless the government adopts rules forcing people to become more health-conscious.

Why is smoking back in fashion? Love is an impossibly stylish biannual fashion magazine, edited and styled by the rather fabulous Katie Grand, who also styled/ran the Louis Vuitton catwalk Kate-smoke show. Her mag is shudderingly chic. Weighty. Every model, every advert featuring a model, has a face that could launch a thousand ships; but a well-flung copy of Love could sink half the same fleet. Honestly, it's heavy. And, in this unusual issue of Love, there are more than a dozen shots of models smoking. Mostly smoking rather well. Old-style. Sexy. (Wisps of blue-blue smoke escape, like half-remembered perfume-ghosts. The thin white dukes of paper jut from lips, from long fingers, promising intention. Much is intensely sexy.

Air travel was safer with smokers. It's interesting, back in the '80s, THE MECHANICS HAD AN EASY Way to check for cracks. They would go over the plane and look for the nicotine stain. The nicotine would be drawn up. Where theres a nicotine stain there was a crack. Now, no smoking on planes, so it's difficult to see the hairline cracks in the fuselage.

The Smog of Reprisal. James Enstrom, a UCLA epidemiologist, was denied reappointment last year to his position as a research professor in the School of Public Health. Dr. Enstrom, who had worked at the university for 34 years, got into trouble, according to the campus newspaper’s report in August, because his research findings on ”fine particulate pollution” ran against conventional wisdom and “stirred up far more attention than scientific research usually receives.”

Property Rights: SC lawmakers stop bill barring smoking around kids in cars. panel members said the proposal reached too far into people's private lives and is difficult to enforce. Republican Rep. Anne Thayer said parents who smoke in their cars also smoke at home, and the bill won't help children there.

Money, money, money...

HI: Hawaii Faces Fight Over Tobacco Tax Increase Proposal. "When sales plummet, salespeople are let go and, eventually, businesses fail," McCalla said. "These are not times when we can sacrifice jobs, income and taxes instead of doing whatever we can to create new jobs, stimulate revenues and support small businesses."

ID: Cigarette tax hearing refused. Several minority party members in the Statehouse want to increase the cigarette tax by $1.25 to provide more funding for Medicaid and public schools.

IL: House OKs bill to allow smoking in casinos. The proposal passed 62-52 and now goes to the Senate. "Since the imposition of our statewide smoking ban, to date our state has lost revenues in excess of $800 million," said bill sponsor Daniel Burke, D-Chicago. "We’re telling people ... go ahead, earn the money in Illinois, then get in your car and go to Wisconsin to gamble."

IN: Smoking Ban Will Only Hurt Lagging State Economy. A statewide smoking ban with key exemptions has passed the Indiana House and now awaits action in the Senate.

LA: Tobacco Tax Increase Proposal, HB63. It adds 70 cents to a pack of cigarettes. But more importantly, it raises cigars from 8% to 12% and 20% to 30% respectively, smoking tobacco from 33% to 49.5%, and smokeless from 20% to 30%. We must all be active, if we are going to defeat this.

NE: Nebraska Tobacco Tax Increase Proposal Harmful. A 225 percent increase in Nebraska excise taxes on certain tobacco products would be harmful to businesses throughout the state, according to the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

OR: Oregon Considers Controversial Tobacco Tax Increases. A flurry of tobacco tax bills with conflicting objectives is under consideration by Oregon state legislators who should say no to any new taxes. McCalla urged Oregon voters to contact their state legislators asking them to vote against any tobacco tax increases or any legislation that would extend taxability of tobacco products beyond the state level.

Australia: Philip Morris to urge smokers urged to fight bans, taxes. "Bans on outdoor smoking, increased taxes, cigarettes not on display and now plain packaging for cigarettes what's next? It's time to tell the Government that you have had enough," the card says. It also directs aggrieved smokers to the campaign website where it claims: "Australia is already one of the most over-governed 'nanny state' countries in the Western world.

Introducing the new Forest website

Join FREE - Home - Events - Forum - Videos - Please Help -

Smokers in IL close to lighting up in casinos again

2011-03-30T22:07:00.003-05:00

Looks like if the bill passes through the Senate, smokers in IL will be able to light up in casinos again. Although the bill would make casinos smoke-free again if casinos in borderline states implement their own smoking bans.

LINK TO PAGE

Kit is now $19.99! The lowest price on the net!

2011-03-29T10:46:00.003-05:00

During the month of April, South Beach Smoke will have the lowest price for an electronic cig kit anywhere on the net. With the home delivery program included, a premium starter kit is only $19.99!

The "home delivery program" is where cartridges are auto-shipped to you every month. Where you don't have to worry about going to the shop per month to order new cartridges. South Beach Smoke does the ordering for you via the home delivery program!

Enrollment in the program itself is free. You can cancel the program at any time.

I will warn that if you order ANY KIT without enrollment in the delivery program, you will pay MORE for your kit. Including paying more than the $19.99 for the Premium Starter Kit.

AND...

...without being in the delivery program, you'll be forced to come back to South Beach Smoke to order new cartridges when you need em.

All links/banners to South Beach Smoke on my blog are workable.

Menthol cigs are NOT more toxic than regular cigs

2011-03-24T23:20:00.002-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42237299/ns/health-cancer/

By Julie Steenhuysen

updated 3/23/2011 4:30:06 PM ET

CHICAGO— People who smoke menthol
cigarettes are no more likely to develop lung
cancer than those who smoke non-menthol
varieties, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday
in a surprise finding that could affect U.S.
regulators' efforts to ban menthol-flavored
cigarettes.

Scientists had assumed that adding menthol to
cigarettes would expose people to more toxins
and increase their cancer risk, but a large
study of older adults in community health
centers found the opposite.

"The key finding was that the risk of lung
cancer was no higher in menthol smokers.

"In fact, it was a bit lower in mentholated
compared to non-mentholated smokers and
there was no significant difference in the rate

of quitting smoking," said William Blot of the
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville,
Tennessee, whose study appears in the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Blot said the team was surprised to find that
menthol smokers had a lower risk.

"It was about 30 percent lower," which he said
in a telephone interview was "statistically
significantly lower." "The hypothesis going in,
although it wasn't well supported, was that
mentholated might be more toxic."

Blot's team studied people aged 40 to 79
enrolled in a large, 12-state study who get
their care primarily from public health clinics.

They identified 440 lung cancer patients and
compared them with 2,213 people of similar
race, age and sex who did not have lung
cancer. They found there was less lung cancer
and fewer lung cancer deaths among people
who smoked menthol cigarettes compared

Joe Raedle / Getty Images file

Brenda Wisehart smokes a menthol cigarette in front of a Quick Stop store on March 30, 2010 in Miami, Florida. A new study finds that menthol cigarettes are no riskier than regular cigarettes, which could affect regulators' efforts to ban them.

Cancer risk no higher with menthol cigarettes, says study
Scientists had assumed adding menthol to cigarettes would expose smokers to more toxins

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2011-03-19T22:20:00.003-05:00

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3 states look to lower cig taxes

2011-03-18T21:37:00.003-05:00

LINK TO PAGE

I agree lowering the cig tax to a dime in NH still wouldn't be much of a difference. I guess some states are starting to realize in order to expect smokers to fill up the states' wallets, a pack of cigs needs to be affordable. And lowering the cig tax could help increase tobacco sales (and thus, more moolah made off of the lower tobacco taxes).

Comments section included.

IL: Palos reacts to possible smoking ban changes

2011-03-14T19:05:00.001-05:00

ARTICLE LINK

Smoke might once again be wafting through your favorite neighborhood bar if proposed legislation passes.

The Illinois General Assembly's decision to consider lifting the ban on smoking for select businesses is drawing both ire and blessing from certain Palos-area bar owners and public officials.

Under House Bill 1310, local liquor control commissions could issue smoking licenses to bars and clubs that make most of their revenue from liquor sales and can install a proper air filtration system.

House Bill 171 would allow ventilated smoking rooms in licensed gaming facilities, while House Bill 1965 pertains to qualifying riverboat casinos, specifically.

To qualify for a smoking license, businesses must first install a filtration system, inform employees of the change, be in compliance with its liquor license, and post signage for the public.

The last caveat doesn’t faze at least one local bar owner. If approved, Angelo Mandas, the owner of Game Time Sports Grill and Pub, has vowed to hang—not just any sign but—a “big sign” on his door welcoming smokers. He claims revenue has plummeted 75 percent since start of the ban, in 2008, and welcomes the lift even at the risk of alienating non-smokers.

“If someone doesn’t like it,” he said, “they can go to another place.”

But don’t count on Hackney’s to do the same.

“I am absolutely against lifting a smoking ban,” owner Michael Masterson said, “because I love the smell of my restaurant and bar now.”

Although his liquor sales dropped 15 percent after the ban, Masterson said he likes working in the lounge without worrying about second-hand smoke. His business could easily become a non-smoker refuge if other Palos-area bar owners go the way of Game Time.

Some opponents of the bills say the increase in state revenue through liquor sales wouldn't compensate for the increase in state health care costs. State Rep. Bill Cunningham (D-36) said last week he hadn't yet read through HB 1310, and couldn't speak on its specifics, but would be against a smoking "rollback" in principle.

"It's not only (about) costs, but just basic living conditions," he said.

Palos Hills mayor Gerald Bennett, also head of the Southwest Conference of Mayors, said last week he’s fine with whatever the state decides so long as businesses are treated equitably.

“When (a law) puts someone at a disadvantage, that’s when the problems starting arising,” he said.

HB 1310 and HB 1965 were approved by an Executive Committee last week and sent to the Illinois House of Representatives. HB 171 remains at the committee level.

A similar bill aimed at allowing smoking in casinos was reportedly presented to the House last year but never came to a vote.

IL Lawmakers Mull Smoking in Casinos, Bars

2011-03-05T14:22:00.001-06:00

(From Smokers Club Inc)

Illinois Lawmakers Mull Smoking in Casinos, Bars

Springfield, Illinois March 4, 2011 – Two current bills under consideration by the Illinois General Assembly are expected to generate increased revenues for the state. They would allow smoking in gaming facilities and eligible businesses that have liquor licenses. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association favors both proposals and today urged their passage.

House Bill 171 allows smoking in designated segregated ventilated smoking rooms in licensed gaming facilities. House Bill 1310 provides that local liquor control commissions have the power to issue smoking licenses to bars and other adult-oriented establishments that have revenues with no more than 10 percent from food sales.

“The so-called Smoke Free Illinois Act prohibited smoking in all indoor workplaces and public places including bars/taverns, restaurants, private clubs and casinos beginning January 1, 2008. These bills back off at least somewhat from that draconian, irrational position by allowing, under certain circumstances, smoking in casinos and cigar bars and other adult places. As we see it, this would be a return to reason and we support their passage,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR.

McCalla noted that the Illinois Gaming Board has confirmed that passage of HB 171 “could have a positive impact on revenues” and it is generally acknowledged that re-creation of cigar bars also will generate increased revenues for the state as well as local authorities through licensing, taxes, jobs and sales taxes.
“It’s the smart thing to do,” said McCalla. “It’s good for business, good for jobs and good for the state. “
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has declared that the current statewide smoking ban was the primary reason that its nine casinos lost $400 million in revenues in its first year. The study showed that the smoking ban was chiefly responsible for a 22 percent decline in revenues compared to recent years. It was also responsible for the improved or more stable performance of casinos in nearby states during the same period. In addition, local communities also lost over $12 million in casino tax revenues.
For those concerned about secondhand smoke, don’t be, McCalla advised. He cited the safe levels of secondhand smoke established by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“There is a falsely placed prejudice regarding secondhand smoke that never should have been allowed to fester in the first place. Even OSHA has established safe levels of secondhand smoke and those levels are literally thousands of times higher than normally found in bars and restaurants that allow smoking.”

Oregon Lawmaker wants to outlaw cigs and put smokers in prison

2011-03-04T23:48:00.003-06:00

Oregon politician wants to arrest anyone for possessing cigs without having an actual prescription for em. I think both sides of the idea (Arresting innocent smokers as well as using cigs as a prescription) are sick jokes.

ARTICLE LINK

Good luck Oregon in making dis idea become reality. What else can I say? Aside from LOL at dis article!

CNBC special on tobacco

2011-02-27T19:50:00.002-06:00

CNBC will be having a special on dealing with the tobacco topic. The broadcast date is March 2nd (Wednesday) at 9 pm Eastern Time. I bet dis program will deal mo with the future of cigarettes as well as the cons of smoking. It would be interesting to see a smokers rights' version of a political show dealing with tobacco

Property Rights Newsletta

2011-02-24T20:08:00.002-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

February 25, 2011 - Issue #603

"I'm not upset that you lied to me,
I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Smokers are a persecuted minority.
By T. Gavin King. This is not reasonable but the product of mass hysteria for a utopia. Moreover, if some nonsmokers might be in those smokers' ghettos, which is unlikely because they don't have to be there, exposure to secondhand smoke could not harm them. Contrary to the widespread misrepresentations about the 2006 surgeon general's report, it did not state that brief exposure to secondhand smoke is harmful.

The Wrongs Of Righteous Research. By Trevor Butterworth. All three authors identify a failure to report results faithfully as a hallmark of bias. As Cope and Allison conclude, "clinicians, media, public health policy makers… should be cognizant of such biases" and view the literature (in their case, on obesity) "more critically." But surely this should be the primary ethical and epistemic obligation for scientists? Or at a minimum, surely scientists should describe other scientific research faithfully? The temptations of the kind of grants and glories that mere philosophers can only dream of cannot be that insidious; but if they are, it is, perhaps, time for a more a tough discussion about how scientific research is funded. Meanwhile, when you next hear an appeal that science shows soda causes obesity or that science shows that banning alcohol advertising will stop teen drinking, caveat emptor.

Thumbs up for fake science! By Simon Clark. US scientists are significantly more likely to publish fake research than scientists from elsewhere, finds a trawl of officially withdrawn (retracted) studies, published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Fraudsters are also more likely to be “repeat offenders,” the study shows. The study author searched the PubMed database for every scientific research paper that had been withdrawn—and therefore officially expunged from the public record—between 2000 and 2010. A total of 788 papers had been retracted during this period. Around three quarters of these papers had been withdrawn because of a serious error (545); the rest of the retractions were attributed to fraud (data fabrication or falsification).

From The Mailbag

CA ALERT: Senator Padilla
Introduces Legislation to Increase the Tobacco Tax.
Introduces Legislation to Ban Selling Tobacco Near Schools.
Legislation to Expand the Availability of Smoke-Free Housing.
Legislation to Ban Caffeinated Beer Beverages in California.

OK ALERT: Please click on the link and find out who your state rep is. Please contact them TODAY and tell them you are against this NANNY STATE preemption bill. HR 2135 by Kris Steele.

Honduras: Seeks to stop smoking - even at home. Lighting up a cigarette at home could bring a visit from Honduran police if a family member or even a visitor complains about secondhand smoke. Some say the law will be almost impossible to enforce in a country of 8 million people with a rampant crime problem and only 12,000 police officers.

Scotland: Scottish Government guidelines for smoke-free mental health services. Here at last are the guidelines directed to health trusts, designed to show them how to implement a completely non-smoking regime in institutions and facilities dedicated to psychiatric care.

Ban Damage Hurts Everyone

TX: Tobacco ban blamed in prison violence. A long-standing ban on tobacco in Texas prisons meant to curb smoking-related disease is fueling a black market economy that breeds jailhouse violence and corrupts correctional officers, according to a new study examining inappropriate relationships between guards and inmates.

Canada: Man mugged on smoke break. A 19-year-old man who took a smoke break in the inner city early Wednesday ended up getting mugged at gunpoint.

Canada: Guns pulled on man with cigarette. "I just had a smoke in my hand, and they were pointing that (gun beam) at me — pointing it right at my chest here, and telling me to put my smoke down. And I was telling them to hold on for a second — I had two more drags," Kennedy said Saturday of the incident, which was caught on video by a Winnipeg Sun photographer. "And they started screaming at me, 'Put the f***ing cigarette down!' or something — really loud, man." Despite his surprise at the order concerning what he doesn’t consider a weapon, the 19-year-old tossed the cigarette onto the floor. He said he was handcuffed almost immediately after. Police spokesman Const. Shaun Chornley said officers were "absolutely not" overreacting to the cigarette.

We Love Cigarettes - Cigarettes Addiction Documentary - 5 part series

FDA supposed to pick the graphical images to appear on USA cig packs

2011-02-23T17:26:00.002-06:00

In June 2011, the FDA will pick 9 images tobacco companies must use on all of their packs within the USA. The images will actually be implemented on the packs by the fall of 2012.

Here's a webpage in relation to dis topic.

I couldn't disagree more on alll Americans, including smokers, not being informed about the health risks of smoking. The only way anyone can NOT know the cons of smoking by now is if dat person just woke up from a 50-60 year coma.

I know when the images DO start appearing on the packs, dey won't scare the crap outta me. I intend on ignoring em. Do you honestly think seeing like a black lung pic on a Newport pack is gonna motivate me to stop smoking? High cig prices and smoking bans haven't made me stop enjoying one of the few pleasures left in life. And graphic images on packs sure as heck ain't gonna make me quit.

More blog visitors are checking out South Beach Smoke Shop

2011-02-22T12:49:00.004-06:00

I see 2 visitors of my blog decided to make purchases at South Beach Smoke Shop. I gotta think of a way to encourage those new customers to submit reviews on their experience with South Beach Smoke. Cause I'm actually interested to hear what they have to say too.

The best way for now is to submit a review as a comment on here. And since comments are moderated, I can re-post the review as a separate blog post.

If blog visitors read what other e-cig smokers have to say about South Beach Smoke, then I hope those reviews can encourage more e-cig fans on here to give South Beach Smoke a try.

While I don't mind accommodating e-cig fans, I still wanna keep traditional cigs the main tobacco product for blog topics on here. There is an e-cig forum on the net with only e-cig related topics on it. And a link is on my blog's links list off to the right.

I will admit the e-cigs at South Beach Smoke look like actual cigs. I've seen other e-cigs that don't even remotely look like an actual cig. Just seeing how other e-cigs look is a turn-off for me.

A blog visitor bought a starter kit from South Beach Smoke

2011-02-19T10:51:00.004-06:00

I see a visitor of my blog bought one of South Beach Smoke's starting kits on Feb 18th, If that same person is reading this, it would be nice to hear your thoughts on your experience of being a South Beach Smoke customer. You can post your thoughts as a comment. And then I can post em as a different blog post.

Bill would allow Hawaiian drinkers to smoke in bars

2011-02-19T09:29:00.003-06:00

LINK TO PAGE
(Comments area included on page. And I left some comments of my own)3

***********************************************************************

There’s a move afoot at the state Legislature to allow smoking in most drinking establishments.

SB708 would create a “smoking establishment permit” that would allow patrons of bars, cabarets and private clubs to legally smoke. There are bar owners who ignore the state’s 5689853smoking ban and risk fines and penalties, but this bill would give them the right to let their customers puff away — for a price.

The cost of a permit runs from $1,000 to $3,000 and money generated would go into the state’s general fund. The bill would continue to ban smoking in restaurants with bars.

Sen. Mike Gabbard, D-Kapolei-Waikele, who introduced the measure, said he started smoking in the third grade, but quit when he was 21. He said he doesn’t like being around smokers, but said he believes customers should have the freedom to smoke while enjoying a beverage.

“It seems reasonable that if the smoking establishments put signs up to notify people, then the nonsmokers will be informed and they can decide whether they want to go in our not,” he said.

Gabbard introduced the bill at the request of the Hawaii Smokers Alliance. He said the alliance estimates that 400 bars would qualify for a permit and that 125 would actually apply for one.

This would generate about $250,000 for the state each year, he said.

There have been attempts by the Legislature to amend the state smoking ban with little success. How far this bill will go, even Gabbard couldn’t guess.

“I have no idea how it’s going to go,” he said.

Anyone who wants to offer an opinion on the bill will have an opportunity at a hearing before the Senate committees on Health and Public Safety, Government Operations and Military Affairs at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday in Room 224 of the State Capitol.

Property Rights Newsletta

2011-02-19T09:26:00.002-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

February 18, 2011 - Issue #602

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need,
but not every man's greed"
- Mahatma Gandhi

HI Bill would allow drinkers to light up. SB708 would create a “smoking establishment permit” that would allow patrons of bars, cabarets and private clubs to legally smoke. There are bar owners who ignore the state’s smoking ban and risk fines and penalties, but this bill would give them the right to let their customers puff away — for a price. The cost of a permit runs from $1,000 to $3,000 and money generated would go into the state’s general fund. The bill would continue to ban smoking in restaurants with bars.

WA state considers allowing cigar smoking lounges. State lawmakers are looking into the possibility of allowing people to smoke cigars and pipes at some cigar lounges and tobacco shops... if you buy an endorsement. The cost of applying for the state endorsement would be $15,000 for cigar lounges, and $5,000 for tobacco stores. The stores would have to pay the fee every year to renew their endorsements.

Refuse to Hire Smokers? What's Next? By Pam Parker. To not hire a worker who chooses to use a legal product is wrong. While a hospital, or any property owner for that matter, should be free to make decisions on what may take place on private property, it doesn't own the bodies of its employees. What employees do legally on their own time is no business of any employer. Otherwise, we are taking a big step on a slippery slope with no clear end. What about people who use salt or sugar? Will prospective employees eventually be forced to give a sample in a cup to make sure they're under some predetermined limit? Will they be subjected to a body mass index test? Will we start to hear claims of "secondhand obesity" -- the danger of obese people making their nonobese friends gain weight?

From The Mailbag

IL: Tenants told to stop smoking or move. Once the transition year ends, a first violation of the smoking ban will cost tenants $350. A second violation will result in eviction. If the transition at Kingsbury is successful, Habitat said it might create a smoke-free environment in its other buildings.

KY: SAYS NO! Smoking ban repealed in Campbell County. Two newly appointed commissioners, who were elected partly because of their opposition to the ban, followed up on their campaign pledges, and voted in favour of a repeal.

NY: The 14th Annual Stoli & Stogies Dinner! 4/7/11 Sponsored by Uptown Cigar and Drew Estate. Includes all you can eat buffet, unlimited martinis, and 3 cigars

UT: Legislators Ill-advised in Moves Against Tobacco, Says Premium Cigar Association. “These kinds of proposals are ill-advised and should be dumped as bad ideas,” according to Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR which maintains that business owners should be left to decide for themselves to ban or not to ban and that Governor Gary R. Herbert has promised “no new taxes of any kind.”

WY: SAYS NO! Judge Day kills smoking ban. Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Timothy Day on Wednesday struck down the county-wide smoking ban passed by the Teton County Board of Health two years ago. Day said in a ruling the Smokefree Air Rule of 2009 not only was outside of the authority of the county board of health but that the act of passing it was unconstitutional.

France: Paris – A city of Smokers? By Peter Thurgood. Inside the area cordoned off by the plastic awning, it was comfortable and warm, and the waitress accepted me and my smoking habit with a friendly smile, and no irritating hand waving in front of her face, which we seem to experience in the UK. Other customers came and went, some smoked, some didn’t, but the atmosphere at all times was warm and friendly, just the opposite to the intolerance smokers are subjected to here in the UK.

Scotland: I smoke despite, or perhaps in spite of, the protestations of those who class me as a threat to society. MPs can smoke in certain areas of Westminster; Iain Gray surely manages to have a puff somewhere in Holyrood; prisoners can smoke – yet the Royal Edinburgh Hospital is now a no-go area for smokers and Belinda puts the case for continuing to keep psychiatric hospitals’ smoking rooms exempt. Even a non-smoker couldn’t argue with the validity of her argument.

Spain: Spanish bars report plunging sales since smoking ban. The FEHR last month launched an effort to obtain half a million signatures on a petition to demand that parliament change the legislation. It has also called for demonstrations in several towns and cities.

UK: The British Pub - A thesis on it's decline and fall. By Pete Robinson. The majority of front-line publicans were intelligent enough to have grave concerns. But their voice was drowned out by those upper echelons of the industry, men-in-suits, who presume to speak for us.

Have your say at the Club Forum!

A site with tv/radio cigarette commercials from the ol' days

2011-02-18T20:26:00.004-06:00

Here's a site with cig commercials on it. TV as well as cig RADIO commercials.

CLICK HERE

Ah, the good oi' days of smoking. I know if that Flintstone Winston commercial was on TV now, antismooking groups would be criticizing RJR for targeting kids to smoking.

Of course, RJR was forced to get rid of their OWN cartoon character, Joe Camel in the 90s. It's amazing a lot more kids back then could identify Joe Camel more than Mickey Mouse. Those kids are likely adults now. I wish I could find out how many of those former kids (who identified Joe) are actual Camel smokers. I bet if any of em ARE actual smokers today, dey smoking Marlboros or Newports more.

Wish I could go back in time and try some old brands

2011-02-11T20:04:00.003-06:00

If I could go back in time, I would love to try several brands from the 60's. I wish I could try a pack of Red 100s in the gold pack, a pack of Salem Longs, and I might as well try the all-white Newports from that decade. It would be interesting to see how the original BHs and the original VS tasted back then.

I bet a BH menthol was very strong for a menthol back then. Even stronger than Newports of today.

Since light cigs and 120's didn't exist in that decade, I gotta fastforward to 1985 if I wanna try VS 120s and Capris. lol

I heard of 2 brands called Twist and Alpine. Both menthols and the Twist had a touch of lemon.

Light cigs came out just after cig ads on TV and radio got banned. But I bet light cigs were actually as strong as a FF in the 70s. I remember seeing a ML 1973 ad, and those MLs had 14 tar and 1.0 nic. 1.0 mg of nic aint "light" to me. lol

The 70s is (of course) the same decade when the first 120's came out. Like Eve and More. I believe Misty came out when I was a boy back in 1990.

When I get around to it, I need to add some cig commercial links on here. Classical cig commercials of course.

Property RIghts Newsletter

2011-02-09T20:17:00.003-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

February 11, 2011 - Issue #601

Any horror element is as much psychological as special effects.
- Christopher Eccleston

Circus of Horrors: Circus act's smoking raises health and safety alarm. Fire-eating is fine. As is walking barefoot up a ladder of swords and swallowing a revolving electric drill. And – while it may not be to everyone's taste – there should be no problems with a dwarf dragging a genitally attached vacuum cleaner round the stage. "To cut the smoking bit out spoils all the rest of it," said Haze. "It's just been completely ridiculous. They've made us do a risk assessment and they've now said they have to get an exemption from the council. Well I've never heard of that. The law is that you can smoke if it's part of the performance, you don't need to have an exemption. We're in limbo really."

Radiation from tests hike risk of cancer: Canadian researchers appear to have proven what, until now, had only been assumed: Radiation from widely used medical tests can increase the risk of cancer. Montreal doctors who followed nearly 83,000 heart attack victims for five years found exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation from common tests used to diagnose and treat heart problems are associated with an increased risk of cancer.

Secondhand Television Exposure Linked to Eating Disorders. For parents wanting to reduce the negative influence of TV on their children, the first step is normally to switch off the television set. But a new study suggests that might not be enough. It turns out indirect media exposure, i.e., having friends who watch a lot of TV, might be even more damaging to a teenager's body image. This research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Harvard University and the Radcliffe Institute.

Dog on board? Drivers urged to buckle it up. USA: Man's best friend is not a driver's best friend. While lawmakers have been banning drivers from texting or using cell phones, many motorists are riding around with another dangerous risk: their dogs. Experts say an unrestrained dog – whether curled up on a lap, hanging out the window or resting its paws on the steering wheel – can be deadly. Tens of thousands of car accidents are believed caused every year by unrestrained pets, though no one has solid numbers.

UK: It's a dog's life: The Dog Ban, insists Joe Jackson, is one of the greatest political achievements of the last 500 years. Amend it? It has to be a total ban, with no exceptions, as soon as possible. Any revision – even discussion – would be a devastating blow to public health. Not that this is necessarily about health. Let’s face it: dogs just stink, and the people who get so powerfully attached to them – for God knows what sick and twisted reasons – stink too. They have no ‘right’ to inflict their vile addiction on me.

Row over whether new law bans farting: Two of Malawi's most senior judicial officials are arguing over whether a new bill includes a provision that outlaws breaking wind in public. Justice Minister George Chaponda says the new bill would criminalise flatulence to promote "public decency."

From The International Mailbag

Happy Birthday! Cuban man celebrates his 111th birthday with a cigar and a wad of cash. Ignacio Cubilla Banos enjoyed the festivities at his home in Havana surrounded by family.

Bhutan: Monk faces jail under smoking ban. A fourth degree felony can carry a sentence of five years. The Bhutan Narcotic Control Agency has started raids, with officials allowed to enter homes if someone is seen smoking or if officials have reason to believe there is illegal tobacco there.

France: French ignoring the smoking ban. "We close our eyes to maintain a business whose balance remains very fragile."

Malaysia: Smokers lighting up just about everywhere. The Government has made a stand, the law has been gazetted, but enforcement is just not there.

Scotland: Updates: NHS Grampian: full retreat from hospital smoking ban, Biting the hand that feeds them?, We're all waiting for you, Claims looming for passive smoke exposure in Scottish prisons, and more.

From The USA Mailbag

AL: Alabama Opinion Leaders Urged to Seek Truth in Secondhand Smoke Claims. “Legislated smoking bans, for whatever reason, are unnecessary and inexcusable. They deprive business owners their right to make such determinations on their own."

IN: Terre Haute City Council votes 9-0 in adopt new ordinance but puts off implementation until July 1, 2012. For now, the ordinance changes nothing and at least one proposed amendment can be expected between now and July of next year. Councilman Norm Loudermilk, D-3rd, one of the strongest supporters of the ordinance, said he would propose an amendment to exempt private clubs, such as veterans clubs, for the workplace smoking ban.

MN: Annandale's oldest tavern calls it quits. JJ's Bar on Main Street has heard its last "last call" and closed its doors for the final time, ending a 75-year run that began not long after the repeal of Prohibition.

NY: Should Outdoor Smoking Be Banned? The places where people can smoke are becoming more and more limited by the minute.

OH: Walford Street Shooting Sends 1 To Trauma Room. Police say that 42-year-old Alberto Chavez was outside smoking when he was shot.

SC: Atlantic Beach nods to smoking ban. Ordinance would affect workplaces, beach. The ordinance requires a second vote for it to be final.
SC: Dorchester County Council tabled Smoking law, signs tabled. "Sometimes good-intentioned legislation has unintended consequences," said Byars, citing businesses in Florida that failed after a similar law passed. Protecting businesses "is the right thing to do."

USA: States eye "sin" taxation as salvation for budgets. Cash-strapped state lawmakers across the country are looking at raising "sin" taxes on everything from traditional vices, like smoking cigarettes and imbibing alcohol, to more recently vilified habits like drinking sugary sodas and hitting the tanning salon.
USA: The Big Tobacco Deal: Watch the video from CEI.

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A pack is 9-10 bucks, and one store only has one Newport pack

2011-02-05T22:10:00.002-06:00

If you wanna know how my day went, it was L-O-N-G. I DID buy some cigs at the store. But guess what? I bought the last Newport 100 pack at the store today! Dat surprised me a lil bit. Especially since the pack was $9.25! Juz goes to show a diehard antismoker mo ppl smoke than you think. And even 9 bucks aint gonna stop anyone from buying ports.

(I guess during the aftamath of the blizzard, every smoker was buying as many packs as they could, regardless of price. Since "cigs are so expensive," it should be easy to buy lots of packs, right? Not always!)

Specials at South Beach Smoke Shop

2011-02-04T13:19:00.004-06:00

GET 15% OFF ON ALL ORDERS WITH COUPON CODE 'CUPID'
(Offer expires February 15th)

All of these deals you see listed below includes Free Enrollment in South Beach Smoke Home Delivery Program. Where cartridges are auto-shipped to you EVERY month unless you decide to cancel the program. There are kits that do not include the home delivery program. But the kits would cost more without enrollment in the program.

All future monthly cartridge shipments (thru the home delivery program) are 30% off.

Premium Starter Kit: Was $29.99 / Now: $ 25.49

Deluxe Starter Kit: Was $49.99 / Now: $ 42.50

Premium Plus Starter Kit: Was $74.99 / Now: $ 63.75

Deluxe Plus Starter Kit: Was $94.99 / Now: $ 80.05

If you're interested in buying any of these kits, feel free to use the shop link above this message. And remember, you get 15% off on ALL orders using coupon code 'CUPID.' The 15% off offer expires on February 15th.

Vaporized tobacco? (The 900th post on my blog)

2011-02-02T21:13:00.003-06:00

I just saw a video online dealing with dis product called Ploom. I hear dis product makes vaporized tobacco. I don't like the way it looks. Although it's different from an e-cig. At least an e-cig looks like a real cig. Well, dat's true in the case of the e-cigs looking like real cigs at South Beach Smoke.

To view the manufacturer site for Ploom, click here.

For the record, I'm not gonna order Ploom. Dis is info for visitors of my blog who are interested in alternatives to buying overpriced normal cigs.

The Secret Cult of Office Smokers (editorial)

2011-02-02T20:54:00.004-06:00

LINK TO PAGE

The Secret Cult of Office Smokers

Ostracized by their peers, smokers are taking advantage of their time together

I have never taken even one puff of a cigarette, which is how I've always known that smoking is cool. However, my faith in that assumption is weakened every time I walk by an office building. All those people shivering outside in their little smoking leper colony replaces the James Dean-era image of motorcycle freedom with one of Henry Ford-era dirty workers taking their elevenses with bourbon from the factory store.

Not so long ago a cigarette was a way of showing how dedicated you were to your job, like eating lunch at your desk or chugging a Red Bull during an all-nighter. During World War I, cigarettes came with a soldier's field rations. FDR dangled one while war planning with Churchill and Stalin. Picasso took drags while painting. Keith Hernandez lit up right in the dugout while waiting for his at-bat. (That's right: People smoked at work even if their job was exercising.) Now that only an estimated 20.6 percent of Americans smoke—a 3.5 percent decline over the previous decade—the nonsmoking majority has kicked them out of not only hotels and restaurants but even the one place they have to be. And while white-collar workers smoke much less than everyone else—only 14.6 percent in 2007, compared with 28 percent of blue-collar workers—their offices are much more likely to ban smoking (81.9 percent in 2007) than blue-collar workplaces (62.1 percent that same year).

Smoking has been banished and ostracized from nearly every workplace in America, with laws in many cities forcing smokers to stand 20 feet from any building entrance. In some giant companies, they're kicked off the entire campus, which means a sad, slow walk down to the highway. Last year at the Manhattan office of Hudson Yards, a digital imaging and photo retouching company, President Diane Romano started forcing smokers to punch out during their breaks. The policy change, along with a hypnotist she hired, have reduced her smoking employees from 11 to 3. "I'm not paying you to smoke. I'm paying you to work," says Romano, who figured each break took about 15 minutes, including the time to get down to the sidewalk from the company's 11th-floor office in the elevator. "If it's one or two cigarettes a day, O.K., but when people are going out five times a day, they're losing at least an hour. That's three full workdays every month. It's not fair for those who don't smoke."

All the evidence led me to the conclusion that the coolness of smoking during work was over. I was way wrong. What I hadn't understood was that smokers are precisely the type of people who thrive on being ostracized and banished. These aren't the ex-football players and class presidents who fought for your approval. These are the brooding loners, the ones who—according to the teen smoking analysis found in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point—start smoking not because they want to look cool but because it goes along with all their other self-destructive, class-cutting, early-sex, authority-flouting coolness. These are people who willingly put fire in their mouths. So that little area in front of the building that looks so lame from afar is actually the high school bathroom of the Information Age. Around the country all the cool engineers, accountants, and salespeople skip out of work, duck their boss, gather outside the building, gossip, and—though I could not confirm this—make fun of me.

I also discovered smoking was still cool because none of the people whom I talked to were willing to give me both their name and the company they work for on the record. That only happens when you write about the CIA, extramarital affairs, or AIG. In their anonymity, numerous smokers told me that, while the nonsmokers look down on them as slackers, their habits have actually helped advance their careers. A salesman for online ads says he has a special bond with clients who smoke, and Jennifer, who worked at an accounting consulting firm in Orange County, Calif., claims that—just like in episodes of Friends and How I Met Your Mother—she never did better at work than when she had a boss who smoked. "That's how I got to know her well, outside during breaks. I'd score some brownie points and she put me in charge of a job in my first year," she said.

While Jennifer, who has held several jobs, never lets anyone know that she smokes during the interview process—"You want to make a good impression," she explains—she still sniffs out her smoking co-workers on her first day. "You say, 'Oh my God, I need a cigarette' after something stressful, and they say, 'Oh, so-and-so smokes.' So you ask so-and-so if they want to smoke. It's like an excuse to meet someone new. You make a lot more friends like that." Friends, I'm guessing, who are a lot more fun than when I try to meet people at a new job by saying, "Man, that was stressful. Almost like when I was deciding whether to play Luis Valbuena or Mike Aviles as backup shorstop in my fantasy team."

Wanting to see how these nicotine hipster societies make do with their decidedly un-Parisian café surroundings, I stood outside a building that houses a large online marketing company in Los Angeles employing about 150 people—I have already said too much—where I met 3 of the office's 10 smokers who had gathered a short distance from the building's entrance. They used to smoke in a little outdoor hallway that shielded them from their supevisor's exits and entrances, until workers at some other company with a door near their hiding place complained about the smoke. They've also been banished by the office management from the sides and back of the building, sequestered in this tiny area with a few metal tables and benches.

Ben Rich, a salesman, takes a drag and complains about how his co-workers view his habit. "You're the jerk who's smoking, taking breaks," he says. "If you smoke, they make assumptions about your lifestyle." When I ask him what kinds of assumptions, he looks down: "That I'm never home. That I'm overly social." I had never before considered the emotional struggles of the cool.

Rich was summoned to this particular smoke break by an instant message from software engineer Sooraj Akkammadam, who says his co-workers make a big deal over the three to five trips a day he takes outside. "One guy acts like it's poison gas when we come back," Akkammadam says. And while some co-workers resent them for taking breaks, most of them—argues fellow smoker and engineer Yevegni Tovbin—take longer trips to buy Frappuccinos. Plus, it's difficult for their boss to complain, since he has installed both an arcade machine and a Ping-Pong table in the office. Besides, Akkammadam thinks that smoking breaks allow him to meet people who aren't on his team, that they encourage cross-departmental collaboration that wouldn't otherwise occur, and give him time to brainstorm work ideas. Smoking, the way Akkammadam sees it, is a lot like a really cheap off-site meeting.

After the three finish their cigarettes and are about to head back up, another engineer with a habit, Paul Lee, walks outside. He's not surprised to see his smoking buddies. "I've worked at lots of places in a lot of cities and there is some kind of timing where people go out at a very certain time," Lee says. Raised to be a gentleman in Alabama, Lee refuses to light up around a female nonsmoking co-worker and waits until she walks away before smoking. When Lee heads down to the metal tables, Akkammadam, who was about to go back into the building, pulls out his pack, taps another cigarette, and follows him. "I can't leave this guy hanging," he explains. Then he walked away and left me hanging.

Even at The Onion newspaper, where the job is to rebel against authority, the staffers have to wait for the slow, old elevator to take them 10 floors down to Broadway in New York's SoHo. "It is a little bit humiliating. It makes you realize that you're not some urban sophisticate smoking. You're more like a dumb animal outside the building smoking," says Onion Senior Editor Todd Hanson.

Still, the current situation seems better than when he worked for the humor paper in its old headquarters in Madison, Wis., where Hanson put his desk inside a stairwell so he could smoke—until the fire department kicked his desk out. So he worked in the stairwell deskless, writing longhand. All these obstacles have only deepened his dedication to smoking breaks and brought him closer to his fellow addicts. "Among the few holdouts who haven't died of lung cancer yet, the camaraderie is stronger," he says. That's because what doesn't kill them only serves to make them cooler.

Have we lost too much and gained too little by kicking the smokers out onto the curb? At each office, out there far from where we can hear them, they've formed a little supergroup of cool, brave, overly social workers who help one another climb the corporate ladder. If you doubt this, consider that a smoker who was just a first-term senator a few years ago is now the President of the United States. If John Edwards had been a smoker, he might have met far more useful people than Reille Hunter.

I found the biggest e-cig forum on the net

2011-02-01T17:21:00.003-06:00

Dis is the biggest forum on the net devoted to the e-cig topic. And I'll leave a link to dis E-Cig forum on my blog for the e-cig fans out here.

As I said on the E-cig forum, I sincerely hope US politicians neva ban e-cigs. Antis argue e-cigs are a good way for smokers to work around smoking bans. Despite the fcet e-cigs do not produce smoke or odors (unlike normal cigs)

BTW, I like how the e-cigs at South Beach Smoke look like a real cig. I've seen otha e-cigs dat look nothang like a normal cig. Like one e-cig looks more like a black stick in someone's mouth instead of looking like an actual cig period.

E-Cigarettes Forum

Are you looking for a trustworthy e-cig smoke shop online? (EDITED)

2011-01-31T18:13:00.007-06:00

My blog is now affiliates with South Beach Smoke Shop.

South Beach Smoke is an electronic cigarette (e-cig) shop. For any smokers interested in e-cigs, South Beach Smoke not only offers starting kits for you. But they also have an auto-delivery program where they'll send you cartridge replacements on a monthly basis.

The auto-delivery program will save you time in going to the South Beach Smoke Shop every month to manually buy the replacement cartridges.

Since I personally never tried an e-cig before, I can't answer specific Q's about the products offered at this shop.

For Q's about South Beach smoke, please send your emails to: service@SouthBeachSmoke.com

(I changed the email addy cause Dave asked me to delete his from my blog. Which I did of course.)

EDIT: When you buy any Deluxe Kit, including the recommended Deluxe Kit with Home Delivery Program, you will receive 10% off your order! Use coupon code 'DEL1010'

http://www.southbeachsmoke.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=5

FDA will make a decision on banning menthols in March 2011

2011-01-30T23:03:00.005-06:00

AHere's a page from the Newport site in relation to the topic of menthols possibly getting banned by the FDA. According to my understanding, a final decision is supposed to come around March 2011 afta hearing what scientists have to say about menthols.

http://www.understandingmenthol.com/

Wanna read junk science on third hand smoke?

2011-01-29T09:53:00.003-06:00

If you wanna read a newer page on third hand smoke, here you go. I notice the fictional claims on third-hand smoke are claims a lotta people no believe. Including nonsmokers with an actual brain.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110112132138.htm

The Property Rights Newsletta

2011-01-28T23:36:00.001-06:00

The Property Rights Newsletter

January 28, 2011 - Issue #600

"The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed,
but that he cannot believe anyone else."
- George Bernard Shaw

Don’t believe the lies about secondhand smoke. By Theodore J. King. Fortunately, it is simply not true that even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease. The myths about secondhand smoke are lies and the product of the mass hysteria the nanny state has wrought that has overcome reason. The hidden and sly purpose of the attack on secondhand smoke is to convince everyone, even rational, smart people, that smoking is not only unhealthy but evil and that all tobacco should be banished from the earth.

From The Mailbag

GA: Macon Group Considering Tougher Anti-Smoking Rules. Ed Lash says, "It would be bad for me and anyone else that smokes. I mean where do you draw the line?"

IN: House exempts taverns, private clubs from state smoking ban bill. House Bill 1018 would still apply to most workplaces and restaurants, unless they serve alcohol and are open only to those 21 years and older. The House Health Committee already had exempted casinos. The House also approved amendments to exempt veterans and fraternal clubs - such as VFWs and Elks clubs - and nursing homes, as long as both have separate smoking areas.

KY: Proposed Smoking Ban Bill Going Nowhere. "When lawmakers don’t want to deal with tough issues..." Westrom admits the bill will go nowhere in this year’s legislature but has proposed it, nonetheless.

MI: Should the smoking ban include the drive-thru? By Marc Schollett. "Vehicles are exempt; vehicles where people are smoking inside the vehicles are exempt from the law." Bottom line, you can smoke in your car, just about anywhere, with the windows down without violating the smoking ban, even if it impacts others. Your car is your property.

NC: IPCPR Urges Courtesy, Not Ban, in Raleigh, NC Parks. McCalla asked, “What if someone complained about the odor of cheap perfume or wet dogs? What if someone complained about seriously obese people taking up more than their share of seating space in the shelters and on buses?

SC: Push For Smoking Bans In Spartanburg County. Romberger, the healthcare professional who presented the findings, said counties and municipalities should absolutely move toward smoking bans.

USA: America’s Culture of Busybodies. Higgs writes. “Because this proclivity provides an irresistible opportunity for politicians to promote their own interests at public expense, one must expect that we Americans are doomed to an endless procession of costly, futile, and destructive crusades.”

Scotland: Forest has welcomed the announcement by the Scottish Government that the introduction of the tobacco display ban in Scotland is being delayed from 1 October 2011 until further notice due to a legal appeal by Imperial Tobacco.
Read More: Freedom-2-Choose Scotland.

Smoking is a choice for the smoker and the business owner

2011-01-28T17:51:00.002-06:00

(From my Facebook wall)

Smoking is a choice. And biz owners should decide for themselves if dey should ban smoking in their biz. But instead, politicians wanna tell owners how to run their biz.

How come smoke-free taverns aint filled up on a daily basis? Afta all, dere are mo nonsmokers, right? Antismokers wanted smoke-free restaurants, bars, clubs, and even bowling alleys. Use the GD smoke-free biz's you mofos wanted all along!

And giving bartenders nice tips would help too so dey can work. Smokers tip betta than nonsmokers.

Smoking-only businesses WOULD work if we had no smoking bans. I predict a smoking-permitted bar would be crowded on a daily basis compared to a smoke-free bar. And I definitely would work at a smoking-permitted bar!