The oilfield has always been one of the last bastions of independent thought, and even we are being chastised for smoking.
Last year I worked for a company for one day. We had a disagreement about whether or not I could smoke, and I told him to shove it up his....uh, posterior.
What I don't understand is how they got this much power?
I'm baffled!
IMHO, the otherwise unemployable found a mother lode to be exploited just by doing the math. Smokers are outnumbered, the tobacco settlement disgorged huge amounts of cash aided by the unproductive members of society and it's off and running. Maynard G. Krebbs has found a paying job, with no heavy lifting, and all he has to do is pester smokers.
The indoctrination in the public "education" system didn't hurt their cause either.
The weak are in ascendancy.
I am baffled too.
It wasn't the "Clinton" years, it wasn't the Reagan years, it wasn't anybody's years. I suspect it is an increasing societal intolerance of anything that offends anybody with today's smokers being the target of choice. During the Clinton years, after the tobacco industry was successfully dealt with by the lawyers and government, they turned their sights on the firearms industry. Fortunately, thru the efforts of the firearms lobbies and their memberships, they were able to convince their respective senators and congressmen that support of anti-gun legislation would mean the end of their political careers.
However, those same individuals and organizations which I so vociferously supported in their efforts to preserve our 2nd Amendment rights, have shown their true colors. Specifically, they support what is important to themselves while conveniently turning a blind eye to issues which do not affect them directly.
The carefully planned propaganda machines created by the lawyers and various government agencies have successfully created the new Hitler era "Jew"........the reviled SMOKER!
Make no mistake about it, as I said in a previous post, the propagandists have successfully identified a target, convinced the populace that that target would do them harm, successfully stigmatized that target, implemented legislation against that target via taxes and ultimately will use the force of law to imprison them...........