I have a better idea. Why doesn't CT just ban the sale of tobacco and be done with. Stop the Tobacco Settlement money going into CT and let CT just pull all tobacco products off of their shelves. How's that.
Posted on 02/09/2005 6:22:08 AM PST by kahoutek
I have a better idea. Why doesn't CT just ban the sale of tobacco and be done with. Stop the Tobacco Settlement money going into CT and let CT just pull all tobacco products off of their shelves. How's that.
Maybe that is true in Connecticut.......but it sure as heck isn't for Delaware.
It constantly amazes me that folks consider the currently "afflicted" by regulation to have all of the rights. Yet, if this were the case, criminals should all go free. I am deeply offended that you would suggest I am not a conservative, without even knowing me or what I stand for. I may disagree with you on this one issue, but that certainly does not negate my credentials or beliefs in other areas. I don't need a clue..... I am more than aware that there are those who would remove incrementally all of the rights and freedoms we enjoy as American Citizens. That is why I covet my freedom not to smell like some kind of whorehouse honky tonk, just because I wanted to eat in a restaurant. Smoke at will......... just don't make me suffer for your ill habits. (that is a conservative philosophy btw)
You are correct about the Delaware racinos.
" Why doesn't CT just ban the sale of tobacco and be done with."
I've said that from the beginning of the first ban that was put in place in New York.
If they were truly concerned for peoples health then making ALL tobacco products illegal would be the only responsible thing to do.
If you had an 'epidemic' of smallpox, would you just 'ban' the people infected, or treat the disease?
It's just a money game.
They're still sueing the tobacco industry and until they make it illegal, money will just be changing hands forever.
that's because the states get coersion money from the fed gvt under *education* if they implement anti-smoking laws. i'm sick of the fed. govt using my federal tax dollars as bribery and coersion in my state. and it's specifically against the constitution... but no one seems to care.
my state just passed a whole nother list of rules and regs against truck drivers (commercial drivers) ... they HAD to do it to get their Fed transportation dollars..
bribery, blackmail, coersion.
But they are.
Most people don't realize that Connecticut is a tobacco state, that the light leaf (wrap) for cigars is grown here.
Before the embargo, Cuba was a big customer.
There is no right at all to go into a certain restaurant. There is no "freedom not to smell like an ashtray." If you didn't want to do so, don't go into a restaurant that allows smoking.
The owner then invested in a very expensive liquor license and business started to boom again.
They then remodeled. The place is beautiful. 4 big ceiling air purifiers. Full menu. A beautiful glass enclosed non-smoking section. Sign on the entrance door "This is a smoking establishment. No one under 18 admitted without guardian."
It is a Sports Bar with the full computer golf game across the back wall; bunch of big TV's. Just beautiful.
But that still wasn't good enough for the state. A full no smoking ban went into effect a year ago January. I went once after the ban, was so miserable that I couldn't sit there like old times and enjoy the evening that I haven't put myself through that again.
And do you think the state will reimburse this business owner for spending his own money to be able to accommodate everyone? You can bet they will not.
Oh.
Well, you would also have the freedom to choose.
Especially since the Tobacco Settlement. Big Tobacco fell to their knees in front of the Attorney Generals, now look where we are.
No one today can look at this issue and not know that it isn't about money. It's about BIG money. And smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes are the ones paying for all of the control, bans and restrictions. Not the government and not Big Tobacco. The smokers.
The non-smoker's should thank us. Where would the government find this money if tobacco was banned? It would set America in a tail spin. But you can't tell anyone that.
Wouldn't the better approach be for you and your wife to avoid places that allow smoking? If enough people like you speak with their feet, then bars and restaurants would voluntarily ban smoking without a government mandate. Sure, you might have to stay away from a few places you would otherwise enjoy in a smoke free environmnet, but that's what happens from time to time in a free, capitalistic society.
BTW, I am also an ex-smoker, and as much as I enjoy a smoke free environment, I should not have the right to force businesses to ban smoking just for me.
I didn't word that correctly. I 'know' they are. Without a doubt. We see them in FR every day.
It should pain you. Because those two things are incompatible.
It's like saying you support the 1st amendment AND support the CFR law.
Property rights are a fundamental tenet of conservatism. If you don't support them, you aren't a conservative.
And please don't start crying about attacks and name calling and all those other things that liberals do when the truth is explained to them.
After all, you want want to stand up for truth, right?
It's already happened. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) which is behind many of the smoke bans has taken over funding of MADD.
The brave new world.
Government sues private industry to line their own pockets and fill budget gaps.
As I've indicated before, if the lawsuits were about "obscene profits" then the government should be a defendant in future suits.
"Where would the government find this money if tobacco was banned? "
They would just figure out something else to 'ban', or sue.
Like McDonalds, Wendy's, or any 'fat' food restaurant.
The thing that galls me the most is they claim they are using the money for medical and 'rehabilitation' purposes, but the truth is less than 10% is used for those purposes.
All the rest is nothing more than a 'windfall' for the states.
Just like the 'education' Lottery.
Ex Smoker myself. I am against bans on smoking in any form. Until it is illegal to do at all, they should not outright ban them.
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